the vicinity disperse the gathering; but
the admiring ones reassembled immediately afterward, regardless of the
threats of the officers, and thus the Society for the Admiration of Seth
Bartlett was virtually in continuous session.

Those who had laughed the loudest because of his ambition were now the
most extravagant in their praises, and there was not a boy on Printing
House Square who did not realize as never before how much might be
accomplished by persistent effort. Until eleven o'clock Seth "visited"
with his friends and acquaintances, and then made his way up to keep the
appointment with 'Lish Davis.

The driver, clad in his best uniform, was awaiting the boy's arrival,
and cried good-naturedly when the latter appeared:

"Well, Amateur, you've spread yourself, eh? Been swelling all the
morning till your head is so big that you need to borrow a new cap?"

"There's no danger of that yet a while, Mr. Davis. I'll wait till I see
how I get along at headquarters before puffin' myself out very much."

"That's a good idea, Amateur, though at the same time I believe you'll
pull through in great shape, providing you hang on as you've done since
I knew you. Now, if it so be you've tended to all your business and are
ready to duf into the work, we'll mosey along toward Sixty-seventh
Street."

"The sooner I get to work the quicker we'll know whether the folks up
there are goin' to let me stay," Seth replied, and with words expressive
of kindly cheer and friendly wishes ringing in his ears, the Amateur set
out on this his first real step toward a position in the Department.

"I don't want them as you'll meet at headquarters to think you're a
dummy, Amateur, and it's in my mind to give you a little outline, so to
speak, of this 'ere school, after which there'll be no need of your
showing ignorance by asking questions. In the first place it ain't
counted on that this 'ere branch of the service is to educate anybody
and everybody that may come along. It's for such men as are admitted to
the Department on trial, 'probationary firemen' chiefly; but the old
hands have had a deal of good out of it.

"This plan was started long about '83 for no other reason than to show
the men who were then in the service how to use the scaling ladder which
had just been introduced, and the idea seemed to work so well that it
gradually grew, kind of swelled out, so to speak, till it became a
reg'lar school. First off, before the new headquar