“No,” said Paul, positively; “I don't want any partner. I can do well enough alone.”
He was not surprised at Teddy's application. Street boys are as enterprising, and have as sharp eyes for business as their elders, and no one among them can monopolize a profitable business long. This is especially the case with the young street merchant. When one has had the good luck to find some attractive article which promises to sell briskly, he takes every care to hide the source of his supply from his rivals in trade. But this is almost impossible. Cases are frequent where such boys are subjected to the closest espionage, their steps being dogged for hours by boys who think they have found a good thing and are determined to share it. In the present case Paul had hit upon an idea which seemed to promise well, and he was determined to keep it to himself as long as possible. As soon as he was subjected to competition and rivalry his gains would probably diminish.
Paul went up Centre street and turned into Pearl. Stopping before a tenement-house, he entered, and, going up two flights of stairs, opened a door and entered.
“You are home early, Paul,” said a woman of middle age, looking up at his entrance.
“You've not sold out the whole fifty packages?” she asked, in surprise.
“Why, you must have made as much as a dollar, and it's not twelve yet.”
“I've made more than that, mother. Just wait a minute, till I've reckoned up a little. Where's Jimmy?”
“Miss Beckwith offered to take him out to walk with her, so I let him go. He'll be back at twelve.”
While Paul is making a calculation, a few words of explanation and description may be given, so that the reader may understand better how he is situated.
The rooms occupied by Paul and his mother were three in number. The largest one was about fourteen feet square, and was lighted by two windows. It was covered with a neat, though well-worn, carpet; a few cane-bottomed chairs were ranged at the windows, and on each side of the table. There was a French clock on the mantel, a rocking chair for his mother, and a few inexpensive engravings hung upon the walls. There was a hanging bookcase containing two shelves, filled with books, partly school books, supplemented by a few miscellaneous books, such as “Robinson Crusoe,” “Pilgrim's Progress,” a volume of “Poetical Selections,” an odd volume of Scott, and several others. Out of the main room opened two narrow chambers, both together of about the same area as the main room. One of these was occupied by Paul and Jimmy, the other by his mother.