n upon the most liberal calculation, the
noonday hour must be looked upon as gone. Then he rolled the baby up in
one corner of the box and started back to the office.

It was Mr. Absalom Jayres's office to which Bootsey's way tended, and a
peculiarity about it that had impressed both Mr. Jayres and Bootsey was
that Bootsey could perform a given distance of which it was the
starting-point in at least one-tenth the time required to perform the
same distance of which it was the destination. This was odd, but true.

After taking leave of the baby and locking it in, all snugly smothered
at the bottom of its dry-goods box, Bootsey delivered the key of the
room to Mrs. Maguinness and descended into the court. Here he found two
other boys involved in a difficulty. Things had gone so far that
Bootsey saw it would be a waste of time to try to ascertain the merits
of the controversy--his only and obvious duty being to hasten the
crisis.

"Hi! Shunks!" he cried, "O'll betcher Jakey kin lick ye!"

The rapidity with which this remark was followed by offensive movements
on Shunks's part proved how admirably it had been judged.

"Kin he!" screamed Shunks. "He's nawfin' but a Sheeny two-fer!"

Jakey needed no further provocation, and with great dexterity he crowded
his fists into Shunks's eyes, deposited his head in Shunks's stomach,
and was making a meritorious effort to climb upon Shunks's shoulders,
when a lordly embodiment of the law's majesty hove gracefully into
sight. Bootsey yelled a shrill warning, and himself set the example of
flight.

While passing under the Brooklyn Bridge Bootsey met a couple of
Chinamen, and moved by a sudden inspiration he grabbed the cue of one of
them, and both he and the Chinaman precipitately sat down. Bootsey
recovered quickly and in a voice quivering with rage he demanded to know
what the Chinaman had done that for. A large crowd immediately assembled
and lent its interest to the solution of this question. It was in vain
that the Chinaman protested innocence of any aggressive act or
thought. The crowd's sympathies were with Bootsey, and when he insisted
that the Mongol had tangled him up in his pig-tail, the aroused populace
with great difficulty restrained its desire to demolish the amazed
heathens. At last, however, they were permitted to go, followed by a
rabble of urchins, and Bootsey proceeded on his way to the office.

[Illustration: HE GRABBED THE CUE OF ONE OF THEM.]

Many other i