“Dunno ’bout my dad,” said Will. “’Spect I’m an orphan. Me and sis was drapped in this here town when we was like young kittens. A big white house, t’other side the Schuylkill, was our head-quarters. Dad sloped. Never heered of him since.”
“The poor-house, eh?” said Mr. Leonard. “You have a sister?”
“Yes. She’s slipped, too. Was took out when I was a baby. Never see’d her since. Hope the girl’s sound. Know I’ve had mighty hard hoein’.”
There was a touch of feeling in Will’s voice which he sought to hide by greater recklessness of manner. Evidently he had a secret yearning for his lost sister.
Mr. Leonard was silent for several minutes before again speaking. He seemed to be debating something within himself.
“So you want to learn something of business?” he at length said.
“You’ve hit that nail square on the head,” said Will, with energy. “I’m gettin’ too big to shove the brush, or handle the extras. What’s more, I’m not goin’ to be a poor critter all my life. I want a bizz that’s got money in it. I’ve sot my eye on a brown-stone shanty up Broad street. If it’s for sale ten years from now I’m in the market.”
Mr. Leonard laughed slightly at the boy’s tone of confidence.
“Fortunes ain’t made as quickly as you fancy, my lad,” he said.
“If I don’t hang my hat up in that shanty, you can count me out,” said Will.
“The saucy young rascal has the making of a business man in him,” said Mr. Leonard, to himself. “I would much rather have a boy that aimed high than one that aimed low. He is a handsome lad, too, and if better dressed would be quite presentable. I have half a notion to try him, with all his impudence. He is a perfect specimen of the street Arab, but he seems quick and intelligent.”
“How about that job?” asked Will, impatiently. “I’m bound to strike one, somewhere, afore night. I’ve give you the refusal. The man that gets me makes a ten-strike, and no braggin’.”
“If I should give you employment could I depend on you to do what you were told?”
“What I was told?” said Will, rising impulsively to his feet. “I wouldn’t give a smashed cent for the feller who couldn’t do more than he was told.”
“That would never do,” replied Mr. Leonard. “I want a boy to do just as he is told.”
“And what chance is there for genius, then, if a feller can’t spread a little?” asked Will, earnestly. “The boy that only does what he’s told won’t never get to Congress.”