“Don’t, eh?” he demanded. “No, I suppose you wouldn’t! I ought to
have known it. You folks in this town don’t seem to know there’s any
other place in the country. Still, you might have heard of Chicago.
It’s a little village in Illinois, down near the lower end of Lake
Michigan. There’s a tree in front of it. They were talking of building
a horse-car line when I left. Got a Cleveland paper, then?”
The sarcasm was quite lost on the youthful clerk. He only gazed in a
puzzled fashion at the annoyed customer and shook his head.
“There ain’t any left,” he said indifferently. “We had one this
morning.”
“You did? Think of that! One whole paper! Say, you folks take a lot of
risks, don’t you? Just suppose you hadn’t sold it!” The irate gentleman
left the store abruptly and Joe followed his departing figure with
thoughtful eyes. A moment later Jack completed his purchase and they
left the shop. It was well after five and, although it was the custom
for Joe to walk home with Jack, this afternoon he pleaded duties and,
promising to go around after supper, watched his friend lose himself in
the throng. What Joe did next would have occasioned Jack some curiosity
had he been there to see. Joe crossed the street――the other side of the
thoroughfare was less congested at this time――and went slowly northward
for six blocks, his eyes busy all the way. Then he crossed again and
returned on the first side. His travels took him over the busiest
portion of the street and left him finally four blocks below the Adams
Building. But what he was looking for he hadn’t seen, and he shook his
head as he turned his steps northward again. In front of the Adams
Building a small newsboy was selling the evening paper and Joe stopped.
“Got a Cleveland paper?” he asked.
The boy shook his head. “I don’t carry ’em,” he said.
“Columbus?”
“Ain’t got nothin’ but the _Recorder_.”
“That all you ever carry?”
“Yep.”
“Do you know where I can buy a Cleveland or a Columbus paper?”
“You might get ’em at Pryor’s, three blocks up.”
Joe retreated to the front of the building and again looked about him.
From the entrance beside him quite a stream of folks were emerging to
hurry homewards. At least every other one stopped to purchase a paper
before going to the car or walking away.
“Hm,” said Joe thoughtfully. “I wonder, now!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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