Square, a bootblack accosted him.

"How are you, country?"

"Are you very anxious to know?" asked Ben, stopping short.

"Yes."

"I'm well enough and strong enough to give you a licking."

"Good for you, country! Have you come to stay long?"

Ben laughed. He concluded not to take offense, but to answer
seriously.

"That depends on whether I get the place I am after."

"What is that?" asked the bootblack, in a friendly tone.

Now, on the way to the city, Ben had overheard a conversation
between two gentlemen, relative to certain swindlers in New York,
which, for the first time, had aroused in him a suspicion that
possibly there might be something wrong about the firm whose
advertisement he had answered. He felt the need of an adviser, and
though his choice may be considered rather a strange one, he decided
to consult his new acquaintance, the bootblack. He briefly told him
of the advertisement, and what it offered.

The bootblack surveyed him with pitying curiosity.