cheapest thing he could think of, and quantity was what counted just
then.

Next he had to find a room to spend the night. He knew nothing about
hotels and lodging-houses--he walked through the workingmen's quarter
of the town, scanning the cottages hesitatingly. At last in the
doorway of one he noticed a woman standing, an elderly woman, very
thin and weary looking, but clean, and with a kindly face. So he
stopped.

"Please," said he, "could you tell me any place where I could hire a
room?"

The woman looked at him. "For how long?" she asked.

"I'm not quite sure," he said. "I want it for one night, and then if I
get a job, I may want it longer."

"A job in Lockmanville?" said the woman.

"Well, I've the promise of one," he replied.

"There can't be very many," said she. "I've two rooms I've always
rented," she added, "but when the glass works shut down the men went
away. One of them owed me three dollars, too."

"I--I'm not able to pay very much," said Samuel.

"Come in," responded the woman; and he sat down and told her his
story. And she told him hers.