"This mean old town is over-crowded with fellows like me looking
for work. And when it comes to office positions, I haven't a
high-school diploma, nor am I fitted for that kind of a job.

"I want to be out of doors. Working in a stuffy office wouldn't
suit me. Oh, as a worker in the city I am a rank failure, and
that's all there is about it!"

He went home to supper much more tired than he would have been
had he done a full day's work at Dwight's Emporium. Indeed, the
job he had lost now loomed up in his troubled mind as much more
important than it had seemed when he had desired to change it for
another.

Mother Atterson was at home. She hadn't more than taken off her
bonnet, however, and had had but a single clash with Chloe in the
kitchen.

"I smelled it burnin' the minute I set my foot on the front
step!" she declared. "You can't fool my nose when it comes to
smelling burned stuff.

"Well, Hiram," she continued, too full of news to remark that he
was at home long before his time, "I saw the poor old soul laid
away, at least. I wish now I'd got Chloe in before, and gone to
see Uncle Jeptha before he was in his coffin.

"But I didn't think I could afford it, and that's a fact. We
poor folks can't have many pleasures in this world of toil and
trouble!" added the boarding house mistress, to whom even the