"Yer a gay ol' cleaner!" exclaimed the black boy, as he lolled in
blissful idleness on the top step. "Now go ahead with the other rail."
But Theodore threw down the rags.
"Not much," he answered. "I've done half your work an' you can do the
other half."
"Oh, come now, finish up the job," remonstrated the other. "'Tain't
fair not to, for you've made that one shine so. I'll have ter put an
extry polish on the other to match it."
But Theodore only laughed and walked off saying to himself,
"Rather think this'll work first-rate."
He went straight to a store, and asked for "the stuff for shining up
brass," and bought a box of it. Then he wondered where he could get
some clean rags.
"Per'aps Mrs. Hunt'll have some," he thought, "an' anyhow I want to
see Jim."
So home he hastened as fast as his feet would carry him.
Good Mrs. Hunt was still a little cool to Theodore, though she could
see for herself how steady and industrious he was now, and how much he
had improved in every way; but she had never gotten over her first
impression of him, founded not only on his appearance and manners when
she first knew him, but also on Dick's evil reports in regard to
him. Now that Dick himself had gone so far wrong, his mother went
about with a heartache all the time, and found it hard sometimes to
rejoice as she knew she ought to do in the vast change for the better
in this other boy.
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