scheme."

"That wouldn't be honest, would it?"

"Honest! Get out of here. What you've eaten is good pay for the
little you've done. As it is, I shall have a fine bill to settle with
the city on account of your folly."

"You did not care whether I got into trouble or not, so you saved a
little by swindling the city. That's about what it amounts to, as far
as I can make out."

"Get out, I say. Tramp! Scat with you!"

Mr. Quigg fairly danced with futile anger, while Ralph, seeing the
uselessness of further words, walked rapidly off.

The small crowd disappointed in beholding a fight, slowly dispersed.
The last Ralph saw of his former "boss," the latter was trying to
secure another assistant from the idle boys looking on.

"Well," thought the mountain lad, as he walked aimlessly up one of the
principal streets, "I am no worse off than I was before I met that
fellow. I'm further on my way, wherever I fetch up at, and I haven't
had to spend any money yet."

The sights and sounds of city life so interested him for the next hour
or two, that he partially forgot the exigencies of his situation in
contemplating the strange scenes by which he was surrounded.