"That's what I mean, sir. Brick's the word we newsboys use."
Just then a boy somewhat larger than Rough and Ready came up. He was stout, and would have been quite good-looking, if he had been neatly dressed, and his face and hands had been free from dirt. But Johnny Nolan, with whom such of my readers as have read "Ragged Dick" and "Fame and Fortune" are already acquainted, was not very much troubled by his deficiencies in either respect, though on the whole he preferred whole garments, but not enough to work for them.
Johnny was walking listlessly, quite like a gentleman of leisure.
"How are you, Johnny?" asked Rough and Ready. "Where's your blacking-box?"
"Somebody stole it," said Johnny, in an aggrieved tone.
"I never knew you when you did have," said the newsboy.
"You won't be till you're a little smarter than you are now. What are you going to do?"
"I dunno," said Johnny. "I wish Mr. Taylor was in this city."
"He used to give me money most every day," said Johnny.
"I don't want anybody to give me money," said Rough and Ready, independently. "I can earn my own living."
"I could get a place to tend a paper-stand, if I had good clo'es," said Johnny.
"Why don't you go to work and earn enough money to buy some, then?" said the newsboy.
"I've sold sixty papers this morning, and made sixty cents," said Rough and Ready.
"I aint made nothing," said Johnny, despondently.
"Come, I'll tell you what I'll do," said the newsboy. "Here's two 'Tribunes,' two 'Worlds' and 'Times' and three 'Heralds.' Just go round the corner, and sell 'em, and I'll give you all the profits."
"All right!" said Johnny, brightening up at the prospect of making something. "What's the news?"
"Steamboat exploded on the Mississippi! Five hundred people thrown half a mile high in the air! One man miraculously saved by falling in a mud hole! Can you remember all that?"
"Yes," said Johnny. "Give me the papers."
Johnny went round to Nassau Street, and began to cry the remarkable news which had just been communicated to him.
"That ought to sell the papers," said Rough and Ready to himself. "Anyway, Johnny's got it exclusive. There aint any other newsboy that's got it."
In about half an hour Johnny came back empty handed.
"Sold all your papers?" asked the newsboy.