I'm all right; or, if I ain't, I'll make it up on the next broadcloth or officer I carry; never you fear! us fellows knows how to take care of ourselves, you'd better believe!" which statement Jim would have known to be truth, without the necessity of repetition, had he been one of the aforesaid "broadcloths," or "officers," and thus better acquainted with the genus hack-driver in the ordinary exercise of its profession.
As it was; he shook hands with the fellow, pocketed the surplus change, made his way into the hotel, was in his room, in his bath, under the barber's hands, cleaned, shaved, brushed, polished, shining,--as he himself would have declared, "in a jiffy" Then, deciding himself to be presentable to the lady of his heart, took his crutch and sallied forth, as good-looking a young fellow, spite of the wooden appendage, as any the sun shone upon in all the big city, and as happy, as it was bright.
He knew where to go, and, by help of street-cars and other legs than his own, he was there speedily.

He knew the very room towards which to turn; and, reaching it, paused to look in through the half-open door,--delighted thus to watch and listen for a little space unseen.
Sallie was sitting, her handsome head bent over her sewing,--Frankie gambolling about the floor.
"O sis, _don't_ you wish Jim would come home ?" queried the youngster.

"I do,--I wish he'd come right straight away." "Right straight away?
What do _you_ want to see Jim for ?" "O, 'cause he's nice; and 'cause he'll take me to the Theayter; and 'cause he'll treat,--apples, and peanuts, and candy, you know, and--and--ice-cream," wiping the beads from his little red face,--the last desideratum evidently suggested by the fiery summer heat.

"I say, Sallie!"-- a pause--"won't you get me some ice-cream this evening ?" "Yes, Bobbity, if you'll be a good boy." Frankie looked dubious over that proposition.

Jim never made any such stipulations: so, after another pause, in which he was probably considering the whole subject with due and becoming gravity,--evidently desiring to hear his own wish propped up by somebody else's seconding,--he broke out again, "Now, Sallie, don't you just wish Jim would come home ?" "O Frankie, don't I ?" cried the girl, dropping her work, and stretching out her empty arms as though she would clasp some shape in the air.
Frankie, poor child! innocently imagining the proffered embrace was for him, ran forward, for he was an affectionate little soul, to give Sallie a good hug, but found himself literally left out in the cold; no arms to meet, and no Sallie, indeed, to touch him.