“Well,” Scott responded, falling in with his humor, “I was going to ask your advice about that, sir.”
“Very good. Then my advice to you is that you work. If you loaf you will have to loaf alone, which will soon become more tiresome than working, unless you want to fall back on your old friends, the millionaires, which would be degrading. Work during the holidays and buy a canoe for Itasca with the earnings. How’s that?”
“Fine,” Scott exclaimed. “Do you think I could earn enough for that? I am pretty green, you know.”
“Never mind about your color,” Greenleaf assured him; “most of the men who work extra for the holidays are more or less of that shade. You won’t be noticed. That point settled, now let’s see what kind of a job I can give you. I have been looking into the matter a little, and have a list of vacancies here from which we can choose something agreeable.”
Scott was very curious to see what the nature of the jobs would be. In his own mind he had pictured such positions as temporary clerkships in a bookstore, a bank, or wholesale house; private secretary to a railroad president, or some kind of investigational work for some ambitious professor. There his imagination had failed him.
“First,” Greenleaf continued, eying his list, “there is an extra salesman wanted at the Palladium.”
“That,” Greenleaf said critically, doing the choosing for both of them, “we’ll not consider, because they pay only a dollar and a half per day and keep you standing up half the night.
“Next there is the job of carrying extras for the postman. That is no good because they do not pay any more than the other and it is likely to run out before the holidays are over. Cold job, too.
“Then there is a billing job in the express office. That is some fun and they pay two-fifty, but there is only one opening there and it is inside work.
“Next, writing tracers in the freight office, two-fifty, but a dog’s life and too much brain work.
“Next. Working on the sewer gang. Two dollars but too many ‘hunyacks’ to work with. Too hard work any way when you are not in training for it.
“Next. Work here at the Station at fifteen cents per hour. See too much of the place now. I want a change of view for my holiday.
“Last. Trucking in the transfer shed at twenty cents. That looks to me like the best shot. Outside work, plenty of exercise, a chance to work extra if you want to, and we can both work together. How does that strike you?”