"Shut up about the Island, Jim," said Micky. "Do I look as if I had been there?"
"You look nobby," said Jim. "Where's your brush?"
"I've give up the blackin' business," said Micky.
"You have? What are you going to do? Sell papers?"
"No," said Micky, consequentially. "I'm in business on Pearl Street."
"Why," said Limpy Jim, surprised, "that's where that upstart Ragged Dick works."
"He aint an upstart, an' he aint ragged," said Micky. "He's a friend of mine, an' if you insult him, I'll lam' ye."
"O my eyes!" ejaculated Jim, opening the organs of vision to a very wide extent; "that's the biggest joke I ever heerd of."
"You'll hear of a bigger one pretty quick," said Micky, rolling up his sleeves, and squaring off scientifically.
Limpy Jim, who had a respect for Micky's prowess, incontinently fled, surveying Micky from a safe distance, with a look in which surprise seemed to mingle with incredulity.