"Hello, there I why hain't you up to the office?"

Joe sprang to his feet. He saw just behind him a boy about his own age,
in the uniform
of a district messenger. "Why, you hain't one of our boys, .are you?
Where did you
corne from?" continued the newcomer.

Joe looked first at the uniform and then at the boy that wore it, as if
uncertain whether he
could trust the evidence of his own senses. " Well," said the
messenger, "what's the. matter with .you now? Does it overcome you very
much to see me?"

" Where did you come from?" asked Joe.

"Corne from? Why, I belong here. What are you doip'? Where do you
work?"

" In New York."

" New York!" exclaimed the boy, and he uttered a prolonged whistle.
"You don't mean
to say that you was sent way down here with a message, do you?"

"See here," Joe made up his mind in an instant, "I'm in an awful bad
scrape, an' so
is this little feller; sit down here an' I'll tell you all about it."