eight dollars, even. "What did you say your name was?" she adds.
I ain't said nothing about my name, but I did now. "Gale Galen."
"Plannin' on stayin' in Drew City for a spell?" is the next question.
"That's up to Drew City," I says, telling the truth. "I"
"What sort of business you in, Mister Galen?" she cuts me off.
The "Mister" tickled me. Why shouldn't it at seventeen? I bet the first time you was called "Mister" it tickled you too.
"The business I'm in right now, Mrs. Willcox," I says, "is looking for a job."
"Ahump!" says Mrs. Willcox, plenty suspicious.
I leave her to be that way, for the reasons that I have already made up my mind that I don't want no part of that two-by-four room for seven and a half or for nothing at all a week. Even if I am a poor fish, I am no sardine. I like plenty of parking space. So I kind of moved to the door.
"I don't think I want to take—eh—" I begin.
A door slams open downstairs with a bang, feet comes pattering up the two flights, a voice that made me snap out of it with a click calls: "Oh, mother!" and a minute later a million dollars' worth of girl yanks open the door, sees me, says, "Oh, I beg your pardon!" and blushes into two million dollars' worth of girl.
"Land sakes, Judy, can't you ever come into the
