Part 22 (1/2)
CHAPTER XV.
KATY GETS A LETTER FROM LIVERPOOL.
Master Simon Sneed sat at the window when Katy returned, and she had to tell him all about it. She pitied him, poor fellow, and she hoped the lesson would do him good. She did not like to tell him so many unpleasant things, for they would wound his pride.
”Well, Katy, what did my friend the mayor say?” asked Simon, as he joined her on the sidewalk.
”I am afraid you will not call him your friend after this,” replied Katy.
”Why? He had not the effrontery to refuse my reasonable request?”
”The what? Please to use words that I can understand,” said she, for she was not a little disgusted with Simon's big words, now she knew how much mischief they had done him.
”Didn't he give you the paper?”
”He did not.”
”I didn't think that of him. It was shabby.”
”He said he did not know you. But I showed him your paper, in which you had written down what you thought of yourself.”
”Well, what did he say to that?” asked Simon, eagerly.
”I thought he would split his fat sides laughing. He didn't seem to believe a word of it.”
”He didn't? I am surprised at that.”
”He said you were a conceited puppy.”
”I always took the mayor for a sensible fellow; I see I have been mistaken.”
”He didn't like it because you sent me to him upon such an errand. He said you had imposed upon me.”
”Go on, Katy; I may expect anything after what you have said,” replied Simon, with all the coolness and indifference he could command.
”He said he believed you were a worthless fellow. Then he told me to meet him at the store of the Messrs. Sands & Co., and he would inquire about you.”
”Then you went to the store?”
”We did; and when the mayor asked Mr. Sands about you, he said you were honest, and did your work well, but----”
”Notice that remark particularly. I hope you called the mayor's attention to it,” interrupted Master Simon. ”What else did he say?”
”He said you were a nuisance----”
”Observe how far his prejudices carried him. That man believed, if I stayed in the store, that I should supplant him and his partner. You see how far he carried his spite.”
”But he said all the good he could of you Simon,” said Katy. ”He said you were honest and did your work well.”