Page 71 - An Amateur Fireman

"If you don't you're a bloomin' idjut! Why, I wouldn't ever knowed you if I'd been goin' fast! I was kind-er
loafin' along wonderin' when you'd be home, an' thinkin' of Jip, so had time to look 'round. First off I couldn't
make up my mind to holler, you looked so bloomin' swell. Now, I don't see why I shouldn't go in for
somethin' same's you did, an' flash up in sich style; but no, I'll stick to sellin' papers, that'll be the way with
me, an' think I'm playin' in great luck if I get to own a stand on some corner."

"You talk as if I was already in the Department, instead of havin' to work my way up to it."

"I only wish I was as near there. By the time you're captain of a company I'll jest about get so I can pay my
own way, with never two cents ahead."

"Now, don't begin to jump on yourself 'cause it seems as if I was gettin' along pretty fast; but wait an' see how
I pan out, an' as for doin' nothin' but sellin' papers, why, that's 'cordin' to the way you want it. There ain't any
need of stickin' to sich business unless you hanker for it."

"Yes there is, except I'm willin' to starve," Dan replied mournfully, and to raise him from the depths of
despondency into which he had been plunged by a sight of the uniform, Seth began to ask him questions
concerning Jip.

"We left him down at the ferry. Bill Dean struck a feller there who promised to give Jip a lift now an' then. I
don't reckon he'll have any trouble, 'cause them as are sellin' papers down that way don't seem to have much
sand to 'em. He's goin' to sleep with Bill's friend, an' take it all in all I think he's gettin' along mighty well,
considerin' it ain't a week since he burned us out. Say, goin' into the house now, or do you count on swellin'
'round a spell first?"

"We'll go home, Dan, an' in the mornin', after I've shined for Ninety-four's men, I'll meet you down-town."

"What? You goin' to do any more shinin'?"

"I am for them in that house, an' I'll keep it up till I get to be reg'larly in the Department. They've done so
much for me, Dan, that if I should spend half my time as long as I live blackin' their boots, I wouldn't square
things."

"If I counted on bein' a fireman I'd be one; I wouldn't black boots for anybody."

"Neither will I when I'm really in the Department; but I'm a long ways from there yet a while. Come home, an'
to-night I'll stand a spread so's to celebrate wearin' the new uniform."