“It’s your pay.”
“Look here, mister, you’ve made a mistake; here’s only two cents.”
“I know it.”
“Do you think I work for any such price as that?”
“Perhaps you expect a dollar!” sneered Jim.
“No, I don’t; but a nickel’s my lowest price. Plenty of gentlemen give me a dime.”
“That’s too much; I’ve paid you all I’m going to.”
“Wait a minute. That boot don’t look as well as the other.”
Jim unsuspiciously allowed the boy to complete his work, but he had occasion to regret it. The bootblack hastily rubbed his brush in the mud on the sidewalk and daubed it on one of Jim’s boots, quite effacing the shine.
“There, that’ll do,” he said, and, scrambling to his feet, ran round the corner.