At an early hour the next morning Gilbert took his stand near the office of the daily “Times.” He attracted immediate attention from the members of the new profession in which he had enrolled himself without permission.

“What are you doin’ here?” asked Jim Noonan, a tall newsboy, with red hair and freckled face.

“I am selling papers,” answered Gilbert, quietly.

“What business have you here anyhow? That’s my place.”

“I shall not interfere with you.”

“You’d better not,” said Jim, pugnaciously, under the impression that Gilbert was apologising. “Just you leave here!”

Gilbert eyed him quietly.

“I shall not interfere with you,” he repeated; “nor 267will I allow you to interfere with me,” he added, firmly.

Jim looked at him attentively, and his opinion of him was somewhat altered.

“What does a boy with good clothes want selling papers?” he asked.

“He wants to make a living,” said Gilbert. “Paper, sir?”

The man addressed purchased a four-cent paper. Gilbert made change in a business-like manner, and directly afterwards sold another, while Jim Noonan looked on enviously.

“I’ve a good mind to bust your head,” he said, angrily.

“Better go to work and look for customers,” suggested Gilbert, coolly.

Jim eyed him with angry discontent. He would like to have pitched into him, but Gilbert was compactly made, and, though smaller than his fellow-newsboy, looked difficult to handle. Jim had hoped to frighten him; but his success was not encouraging.

Gilbert, on the whole, succeeded beyond his anticipations. 268Probably his appearance was in his favor, and attracted customers. But this was not all. He was quick and alert in manner, and kept a good look-out for trade.

“How many papers have you sold?” asked Jim, after a while.

“Fifty,” answered Gilbert.

“Fifty!” ejaculated Jim; “why, I aint sold but twenty.”

“You haven’t attended to business as closely as I have.”

“Ef it hadn’t been for you I’d have sold a good many more.”

“That isn’t the reason. You would have sold as many as I if you had tried as hard.”

“It’s mean, a boy like you comin’ down, and takin’ away a poor boy’s business.”

“I shan’t sell papers any longer than I have to. I hope next week to go into something else.”

Just then a gentleman inquired for a paper which Gilbert was out of.

269“I think he’s got it,” said Gilbert, pointing to Jim, thereby obtaining a customer for the latter.

“We may as well help each other,” said Gilbert. “There’s no use in quarrelling.”

“Do you mean that?” asked Jim, doubtfully.

“Yes, I do.”

“You aint as mean as I thought you was,” said Jim, his dislike beginning to evaporate.

“I hope you’ll stick to that opinion,” said Gilbert, good-humoredly. “When I go out of this business I’ll recommend my friends to patronize you.”

Thus far Gilbert had seen no one whom he knew. That trial was yet to come. I call it a trial, because Gilbert was quite aware that in becoming a newsboy he had made a descent in the social scale. He had taken the step as a matter of necessity, and not because he liked it. He knew very well how it would be regarded by his acquaintances, and he rather dreaded the expressions of surprise which it would elicit.

The first acquaintance to greet him was............