Robin threw out his hands helplessly. “Sell papers, I guess.”
“Which you never done b’fore,” said Duck. “In yer guessin’, was you guessin’ as how you got ter buy yer first stack o’ papers ’fore you c’n go sellin’?”
“N-n-no,” stammered Robin.
“Takes some o’ yer money right there,” offered Spider.
“An’ then findin’ a good corner wot ain’t been took by some other bleedin’ paper boy,” said Duck. “An’ then if he finds you there tryin’ ter horn in on his biz, you might jist’s well kiss off the rest o’ yer bleedin’ life.”
“Then,” said Mouse, “night comes, an’ you still got most o’ yer stack left. Nex’ day you got ter buy ’nother stack, only you never made no money the day b’fore ter buy it. So back you goes ter yer two dollars an’ fifty cents, which now ain’t two dollars an’ fifty cents no more. Then the nex’ day …”
“Aw, can it, Mouse,” said Duck. “He’s got the picter by now.”
He did indeed get the “picter.” And was feeling more and more beaten down by it. What had ever made him think he could survive on the streets? And before he came up with the idea of the church steps, which of course had gone the way of all his other ideas, what had made him think he could take care of himself and Danny? It appeared that he could not have even taken care of himself very well. And now it had gone back to being himself and Danny. The “picter” was no longer merely bleak, it was totally hopeless!
“It doesn’t matter any more that I don’t know the first thing about selling papers,” he said. “How can I go out and do anything and leave Danny? Who would take care of him? You heard what Mouse said. Milk doesn’t come cheap. My money would soon go, and then what?”
Robin saw nothing funny in what he had just said, yet why were all the boys suddenly grinning at one another? Happy to have a reason to kick him out, were they? Did not perhaps like being awakened in the morning by Danny howling? Realized they had made a big mistake taking the two of them in, had they?
“Well, so happens the ‘wot’ is already been figgered out,” said Duck, his grin broadening. “We got it all figgered out b’fore we even arsked you ter join up. Piggy’s who’s goin’ ter take care o’ yer Danny.”
“P-P-Piggy?” said Robin. “H-h-how?”
“Tell ’im, Piggy,” said Duck.
“You tell ’im,” returned Piggy.
“Ain’t it time somebody telled ’im somethin’ ’bout all o’ us?” Mouse said. “Robin’s done telled us ’bout hisself, but none o’ us is said nothin’ ’bout where we come from nor how we come here. Ain’t it proper we ought ter do that? Then he’ll know ’bout Piggy an’ the rest o’ us. Duck, whyn’t you do it?”
“Well,” said Duck, “all o’ us met whilst we was paper boys. It’s why we knows so much ’bout it. We was friends wot found out we all got a ma what had more kids’n you c’n count. We all had a pa wot beat us regular when we brung home less’n wot he were expectin’ from sellin’ papers. You got ter know it ain’t jist a step-pa wot beats his kids. An’ we got beat a lot more when our pa come in from visitin’ at the corner.”
“Anyways, Piggy’s pa decided as how Piggy weren’t makin’ ’nough with the papers. Like yer step-pa, he figgered as how he’d put Piggy in the fac’tries. Piggy don’t look nowhere near sixteen, so his pa tol’ the boss at the fact’ry Piggy c’d read an’ write ter get by passin’ fer fourteen. Piggy ain’t able ter pass fer ten, but them fact’ry bosses never even arsk you ter prove yer readin’ an writin’ if they wants you bad ’nough. They wanted Piggy, ’cause he used ter be like a monkey way he got ’round. Then he felled inter this m’chinery which ruint his leg. Fact’ry didn’t want him no more, but his pa thinks it ain’t so bad, ’cause he’s still good fer goin’ beggin’ on the streets. Only jist like when he was sellin’ papers, if he never brought in wot his pa thought he ought ter, he got beat jist like b’fore. His pa’d say he weren’t beggin’ good ’nough.”
This was turning into a long story, and Duck had to stop to take a deep breath before going on. “Well, seein’ poor Piggy got us all thinkin’ as how we’d had ’nough o’ the beatin’s, so we runned off an’ joined up with boys wot live under the pier near the big fish fact’ry down by the river. Went on sellin’ papers, but never took none o’ it home no more. All o’ us but Piggy was savin’ ter git boxes, an’ brushes, an’ blackin’ ter go inter the biz o’ shoe shinin’. Piggy had ter go on beggin’ ’cause he ain’t able ter do much else yet.”
“Didn’t anybody’s mama or papa go looking for them?” asked Robin, knowing how distraught his own would have been had he just disappeared into thin air like that.
All four boys shrugged. “Maybe they did, or maybe they never did. We never arsked,” Spider said. “All we knowed were nobody come lookin’ fer us, which never surprised us none. We heard ’bout a boy we knowed wot sold papers an’ got drownded. When he got found, we was telled, nobody knowed as how he’d even been missin’. With so many in the family, one more nor less don’t mean nothin’. So go on with yer story, Duck.”
“Well,” Duck said, “knowin’ as how we was all goin’ ter have ter find places ter set up our biz, an’ how streets wot looked richer’n others might be jist the right places, I come up on this here church. It were gettin’ on dark,
