Of the meal which followed Mrs. Green had made quite a feast, in order to celebrate the good-fortune which had come to two of her boarders. A cold boiled ham with smoking hot potatoes, followed by pies and fruit, made up a dinner that would have been thought fit for a king, had it not been for the remembrance of the "swell affair" at Coney Island. All were in the best of spirits save Mopsey; and when Dickey asked the cause of his apparent trouble, it was learned that the present of the store was a severe blow to him, since it deprived him of nearly all his theatrical company, as well as partners in the enterprise.
"I'll tell you what it is, Mopsey," said Ben, after he had whispered with Johnny and Dickey, and they had nodded their heads as if agreeing with what he said, "we'll give you our share of the theatre--'cause, of course, we can't spend any time actin', now that we've got the store, an' you an' Nelly can own it alone. You can get some other actors, an' we'll buy tickets every time you have a show, whether we can come or not."
This present was all Mopsey needed to make him as happy as if he had been given an interest in the store. He began to think of such of his friends as he was quite positive would make bright and shining lights in the dramatic world, and was so generous as to offer to tell them all about the play as soon as he should have it mapped out in his mind.
When the partners went to bed that night, impressed with a sense of their growing importance, Johnny remarked to Ben, just as his eyes were closing in sleep,
"Now we're reg'lar folks at last, ain't we?"
As Paul had agreed, he spent the next day with Ben and Johnny in their store; and surely no shopman ever felt more pride in selling goods than they did. Paul acted as clerk; and a very inquisitive one he was, too, for he insisted on looking everywhere, so that he should know just what kind of goods his friends had for sale.
Trade was very good; and when the money was counted for about the fifteenth time, and it was found that they had sold twenty dollars' worth of goods, there was not one of the four who did not believe that in less than a year Ben and Johnny would be numbered among the merchant princes of the country.