Crossing the river, he took the cool foot-path under the willows.  He cut down one of the smoothest, sappiest branches with which to make whistles.  Dorian was a great maker of whistles, which he freely gave away to the smaller boys and girls whom he met.  Just as it is more fun to catch fish than to eat them, so Dorian found more pleasure in giving away his whistles than to stuff them in his own pockets.  However, that afternoon, he had to hurry on to town, so he caught no fish, and made only one whistle which he found no opportunity to give away.  In the city, he attended to his mother’s errands first.  He purchased the few notions which the store in his home town of Greenstreet did not have, checking each item off on a slip of paper with a stub of a pencil.  Then, there were his shoes.

Should he get lace or button, black or tan?  Were there any bargains in shoes that afternoon?  He would look about to see.  He found nothing in the way of footwear on Main street which appealed to him.  He lingered at the window of the book store, looking with envious eyes at the display of new books.  He was well known by the bookseller, for he was a frequent visitor, and, once in a while, he made a purchase; however, to day he must not spend too much time “browsing” among books.  He would, however, just slip around to Twenty-fifth street and take a look at the secondhand store there.  Not to buy shoes, of course, but sometimes there were other interesting things there, especially books.

Ah, look here!  Spread out on a table on the sidewalk in front of this second-hand store was a lot of books, a hundred or more—­books of all kind—­school books, history, fiction, all of them in good condition, some only a little shopworn, others just like new.  Dorian Trent eagerly looked them over.  Here were books he had read about, but had not read—­and the prices!  Dickens’ “David Copperfield”, “Tale of Two Cities”, “Dombey and Son”, large well-printed books, only a little shopworn, for thirty-five cents; Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair”, twenty-five cents; books by Mrs. Humphrey Ward and Margaret Deland; “Robinson Crusoe”, a big book with fine pictures.  Dorian had, of course, read “Robinson Crusoe” but he had always wanted to own a copy.  Ah, what’s this?  Prescott’s “Conquest of Peru”, two volumes, new, fifty cents each!  Dorian turned the leaves.  A man stepped up and also began handling the books.  Yes, here were bargains, surely.  He stacked a number together as if he desired to secure them.  Dorian becoming fearful, slipped the other volume of the Conquest under his arm and made as if to gather a number of other books under his protection.  He must have some of these before they were all taken by others.  The salesman now came up to him and asked: 

“Find something you want?”

“O, yes, a lot of things I like” replied Dorian.

“They’re bargains.”

Dorian needed not to be told that.

“They’re going fast, too.”