With this the policeman walked leisurely away, swinging his club. Quigg surveyed Ralph with disgust. "Put down that bucket and brush," said he, "and unsling those posters. You're too precious green for my business, by half." "Green I may be," returned the boy, disburdening himself at once, "but I am no liar, and I can't say as I want to work for a liar either." "You impudent rascal!" cried Quigg, thoroughly enraged, "I'll teach you to call names!" Quigg was small for a man, and Ralph large for a boy of his age. When the former advanced threateningly, the mountain lad stood firm and eyed his employer steadily. "You can talk as you please, Mr. Quigg; but--keep your hands off." The little artist stormed and threatened, but came no nearer. "If you had been sharp," said he "you would have posted those bills in a hurry and dodged the police. I could have taken pictures for a few days, then boarded the train before the authorities got onto the 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. The street cars, the drays, the carriages, and the other intermingling vehicles puzzled his senses and deafened his ears. "What a racket they keep up," thought he. "It's a wonder they don't run into each other! And the women! I never saw such dressin' before, nor so many pretty girls. Our mountain folks on meeting day ain't nowhere. The houses are so high I don't see how they ever climb to the top. I'd just as soon crawl up old Peaky Top back of our cabin on Hiawassee." Down at the railroad station he narrowly escaped being run over by a swiftly moving engine. Its shrill whistle and the objurgations of the fireman as it passed, startled him not a little.