"I dunno. What do you want to for?"
"'Cause I ain't got any other place."
If Sam hadn't been so fat, he would probably have started in surprise; but as it was, he expressed his astonishment by a kind of grunt, and going nearer to Tim he asked, "Where do you live?'
"Nowhere. Me an' Tip are tryin' to find some place where we can earn our own livin'," replied Tim, in doubt as to whether he ought to tell this boy his whole story or not.
"Ain't you got any father or mother?"
"No," was the sad reply. "They're both dead, an' me an' Tip have to look out for ourselves. We did live with Captain Babbige, but we couldn't stand it any longer, an' so we started out on our own hook."
"Where do you get things to eat?"
"We've got some money to buy 'em with."
"How much you got?"
"I had two cents when I left Selman, an' Mr. Sullivan, that keeps a store down to the mills, gave me two dollars."