? ? ? ? A wonderful change came over Mike Flynn. Until he met Rodney he seemed quite destitute of ambition. The ragged and dirty suit which he wore as bootblack were the best he had. His face and hands generally bore the marks of his business, and as long as he made enough to buy three meals a day, two taken at the Lodging House, with something over for lodging, and an occasional visit to a cheap theater, he was satisfied.
? ? ? ? He was fifteen, and had never given a thought to what he would do when he was older. But after meeting Rodney, and especially after taking a room with him, he looked at life with different eyes. He began to understand that his business, though honorable because honest, was not a desirable one. He felt, too, that he ought to change it out of regard for Rodney, who was now his close companion.
? ? ? ? "If I had ten dollars ahead," he said one day, "I'd give up blackin' boots."
? ? ? ? "What else would you do?"
? ? ? ? "I'd be a telegraph boy. That's more respectable than blackin' boots, and it 'ould be cleaner."
? ? ? ? "That is true. Do you need money to join?"
? ? ? ? "I would get paid once in two weeks, and I'd have to live till I got my first salary.
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