"Oh, you won't have to pay for it," said the floor-walker, smiling pleasantly, till he showed his white teeth. "Mr. Persons wouldn't ever charge you a cent for it."
"Thank you!" bobbed Joel, in intense relief, "that's awfully good!" and he laughed, too, and gleefully slapped his pocket till, encountering the big pin again, he thought better of that, and said once more, "Thank you, mister," in the exuberance of his delight, and was moving off.
"Oh, no, indeed," repeated the floor-walker, decidedly, "he wouldn't ever think of it; the girl's got to pay," and he turned off, too.
"Hey!" cried Joel, whirling around. Then he ran back to the tall man's side. "Has that girl got to pay?" he demanded, his black eyes flashing and his eyes working dreadfully; "say, tell me, has she?"
"Why, of course," said the man, "don't you worry, he won't touch a cent of your money; and you keep still, I shan't tell him, so he won't know, anyway."
"Well, I shall tell him myself," said Joel, in a burst, and dashing up to the first door he saw, he opened it and plunged in before the floor-walker could stop him.
So Ben and Polly, staring in the direction he had run, of course lost track of him and had nothing to do but to wait there till he came back.
Joel pranced up to the first desk he saw, of which the room appeared to be full, and found himself by the side of a young man, with a very large head of tow-colored hair, who was doing his best to find the bottom of a long column of figures. As he paid no attention to Joel's sudden appearance, the floor-walker had time to add himself to their company. At this the young man deserted his figures, thrust his pencil in the thicket of tow hair, and said, "Hey, that you, McKenzie?"
But Mr. McKenzie paid small heed. "Here, you don't want to come in here," he said to Joel, "I'll fix that up for you." But Joel, not caring to wait for attentions that didn't appear to be forthcoming, dashed off to the next door. "Where's the big man?" he demanded.
"Hey?" The busy worker raised his head in astonishment to stare into the chubby face thrust into his own.