P.M. without hustling over here before
daylight and blacking our boots; consequently we're going to hire
another boy so's to remove the temptation from your path."

"Don't do it, please don't do it, Mr. Davis," Seth cried imploringly.
"It don't seem like work to me. So long as I can be here every mornin'
an' do somethin' of the kind, it 'pears as if I belong to the company.
S'posen you get another feller to do the shinin' an' I come 'round
evenin's to tell you what's been goin' on? Why, it would only look as if
I was a visitor. I don't want to give up all my hold here, an' that's
what will happen if somebody else does the shinin'."

There could be no question but that Seth was deeply in earnest, and more
than one of the men nodded to the driver as if to say that the boy
should be allowed to do as he pleased.

Jerry Walters took it upon himself to say very decidedly:

"I think, 'Lish, Amateur is right, an' you've got no call to cut him off
from what he wants to do, 'specially after it's been once agreed upon.
It ain't that I'm figgering to have my boots shined for nothing; but I'm
feeling a good deal as he does. I'd like to have him come 'round
regularly, an' we'll be certain of it if there's work to be done."

"Very well, very well," the driver replied. "He shall keep on for a
spell, though it ain't to my liking. If Amateur was a kid that spent his
time kiting 'round the streets it would be different; but he's got to
have some little amusement, and how is it to be had if he starts in at
daylight blacking boots, works until six o'clock at headquarters, then
spends his evening at the school? Why, it'll come nigh to using him up."

"He ain't on at headquarters Sunday, is he?"

"No; but that's only one day in seven, and so long as Amateur is in our
charge, so to speak, I ain't going to have him get an idea that he can
spend the Sabbath cavorting 'round as some of his chums do."

"When I begin to take part in the drill at headquarters I shall have all
the sport that's needed," Seth interrupted, "and besides, even if I go
to the night-school, I'll get an hour in here between six an' seven----"

"And a heap of fun you'll have with a lot of old cronies like us," 'Lish
added with a laugh.

"I'd rather be here than anywhere else, sir, an' if you want to give me
a good time now and then, an' I happen to be 'round when there's an
alarm, let me go out with Ninety-four; that'll be fun enough."

'Lish winked at his comrade