“Quarter if I shine your shoes, sir?” The boy was skinny, dirty, and covered in coal dust. Not quite old enough to work in the mines, but getting close. His jacket was too big around his shoulders, too worn to be his own.
The business man looked down at his perfectly shined shoes. There was something in the way the boy looked that made him pull a quarter from his pocket and pass it to the boy. “Keep it, young man,” He said.
He was about to sign the papers that would make the town apartment buildings.