human
I guess trade must have been pretty good with you to-day, else you wouldn't be feelin' so terrible funny.
gpt
Well, it hasn't. I got stuck on four _Heralds_ this mornin', an' five _Expresses_ to-night. That comes pretty near cleanin' off all the profits, 'cause it's awful dull nowadays in my business, Seth.
human
Then I can't guess why you got so dreadful silly when I said I was goin' into the Department some day.
gpt
It would make anybody laugh, Seth, to hear a feller no bigger'n you talk of such things. You must be a man to get that kind of a job.
human
Well, shan't I be in time--and not such a terrible long while either? I'm fourteen now, leastways, that's the way I figger it out, an' if I could get one of them early spring moustaches like Sim Jepson is raisin', folks would think I was a man when I wasn't only eighteen. Don't you reckon all the firemen were boys once?
gpt
Yes, Dan replied doubtfully,
human
I s'pose they was, and he added quickly as a sudden thought occurred to him,
gpt
Course they did, an' it was a case of learnin'. That's jest what I'm doin' when I tend out on fires. I'm gettin' posted, an' by an' by when I'm old enough you'll see me in the Department, that's all there is about it.