"Hello," I said, sort of weak; for I'd never set eyes on him before in my life.
He laughed. "Want an introduction, do you?" he said, still grinning. "I didn't need one—I knew you at a glance."
I tried to grin, too. He sat down on the upper step and leaned back against the pillar.
"Want a job?" he said.
"Sure," said I, "if it isn't working."
He laughed again. "All right," he said; "There's no work within ten miles of it—but it doesn't begin until after supper, and all you get out of it is this," and he tossed me a little package.
It was a hard, flat package, wrapped in blue paper. I untied the string, and there was a thin wooden box. I knew what was in it, right at a glance. "Gee!" I said, as I unhooked the fastenings and saw the set of compasses that I had been simply aching to have, for a year. There was the compass with two sharp points, and one of the points could be taken off and you could put in another section that had a sort of a pen on the end of it, or one that had a place for a pencil, and there was an extra piece to put in to make one arm longer than the other;—and there was a little
