“It's rather hard, isn't it?”
“I can do it,” said Jimmy, confidently.
Paul left the room with his basket on his arm.
He was drawn by curiosity to the spot where he had met with his first success, as well as his first failure—the front of the post office. Here he became witness to an unexpectedly lively scene; in other words, a fight, in which Teddy O'Brien and his confederate, Mike, were the contestants. To explain the cause of the quarrel, it must be stated that it related to a division of the spoils.
Teddy had sold out his last package, seventy-five in number. For these he had received five cents apiece, making in all three dollars and seventy-five cents, of which all but a dollar and seventy-five cents, representing the value of the prizes and the original cost of the packages and their contents, was profit. Now, according to the arrangement entered into between him and Mike, the latter, for his services, was to receive one cent on every package sold. This, however, seemed to Teddy too much to pay, so, when the time of reckoning came, he stoutly asseverated that there were but sixty packages.
“That don't go down,” said Mike, indignantly; “it's nearer a hundred.”
“No, it isn't. It's only sixty. You've got the fifty cents, and I'll give you ten more.”
“You must give me the whole sixty, then,” said Mike, changing his ground. “I drawed the fifty as a prize.”
Teddy was struck with astonishment at the impudence of this assumption.
“It wasn't no prize,” he said.