"Yes, they do need it," he said, "but I haven't money enough to pay you for doing it."
"Only five cents."
"I haven't five cents. I'm poorer than you are, my boy," said Jed in a burst of confidence.
The boy looked puzzled.
"You don't look like it," he said after scrutinizing Jed's appearance. "How did you come to be so poor?"
"Had all my money stolen last night."
"How much was there?"
"Thirty-five dollars."
"Whew!" whistled the bootblack. "That was a haul. Who did it?"
"A young man I fell in with. He invited me to share his room. I woke this morning to find that he had stolen all my money."