"Good-morning, Joshua," said the salesman. "What's up this morning?"
"Nothing that I know of."
"You have an easy time. Nothing to do but to lounge about all day. You aint cooped up in a store fourteen hours a day."
"That's so; but I suppose I'll have to begin some time."
"Oh, you're all right. Your father's getting richer every year."
"Yes, I suppose he is; but that doesn't give me ready money now. The fact is, I'm hard up for five dollars. Can't you lend it to me for a week? I'll give it back in a week, or ten days at any rate."
"You couldn't come to a worse place for money," said Nichols, laughing. "The fact is, I'm hard up myself, and always am. Old Jones, the tailor, is dunning me for this very suit I have on. Fact is, my salary is so small, I have the hardest kind of work to get along."
"Then you can't lend me the money? It's for only a week I want it."
"I've got less than a dollar in my pocket, and I'm owing about fifty dollars to the tailor and shoemaker. Perhaps Walter can lend you the money."