Once more Cis broke in, her voice high and shrill. "Oh, now he's got something else to worry about! A second ago he was mad because he found out you had a few books! But here you've got a decent pair of shoes to your feet--for once in your life! and a decent suit of clothes to your back--so that you look like a human being instead of the rag bag! And you've got the first hat you've had since you were five years old!" The hat was lying on the floor--to one side, where it had fallen from Johnnie's head when Barber had thrown the boy off. Now the latter went to pick it up, and hold it at his side. Then, standing straight, his sober eyes on the longshoreman, he waited. "Where'd y' git 'em?" questioned Barber. He slammed the books on the table. The big-girl hands worked convulsively with the hat for a moment. Then, "The suit was--was give t' me," Johnnie faltered. "_Gi-i-ive?_" echoed Big Tom, as if this were his first knowledge of a great and heinous crime. "Think of it!" shrilled Cis. "Johnnie's got a friend that's willing to spend a few dollars on him! Isn't that a shame!" Barber did not look at her; did not seem to know that she was talking. "_Who_ give it?" he persisted. "It--it was One-Eye," said Johnnie. "Oh, _was_ it!" exclaimed the longshoreman. His tone implied that in all good time he would reckon with the Westerner. "Yes, One-Eye!" cried Cis. "So you can take your temper out on _him_! Only you better look out! One-Eye's a man--not just a kid! And cowboys carry pistols, too! So you better think twice before you go at _him_! You'll be safer to stick to abusing children!--Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!" While he was waiting for silence, Barber fell to examining the scout uniform, article by article--the hat, the coat, the trousers, the leggings, the shoes, his look full of disgust, and fairly withering. When he was done, he sank leisurely into the morris chair, a big hand on each knee, and the flat back of his head rested against the old soiled cushion. And now he concentrated on Johnnie's countenance. "So Mister One-Eye fitted y' out," he resumed, and his mouth lifted at one corner, showing a brown, fanglike tooth worn by his pipe stem. "Y--yes, sir," replied Johnnie. "Oh, be sure to sir him!" mocked Cis. "He deserves politeness!" Big Tom showed all of his teeth. But not at what Cis had been saying; it was evident that some new and pleasant thought had occurred to him. He nodded his head over it. "I thought maybe it was that dude again," he remarked cheerfully. "But it was One-Eye fitted y' out! Hm! And when I'm off at work, instead o' doin' what y' ought t', y' fix y'rself up, don't y'?--soldier boy stuff!" "I--I do my work in these," pleaded Johnnie. "I do! Honest! See how nice the place is! I don't shirk nothin'! 'Cause y' see, a scout, he----"