days, ain't it?" said the man. "A poor man ain't
nowhere. You could starve, by God, right in the streets, and there ain't
most no one would help you."

"Right you are," said the other. "The job I had I lost 'cause they shut
down. They run all summer and lay up a big stock, and then shut down."

Hurstwood paid some little attention to this. Somehow, he felt a little
superior to these two--a little better off. To him these were ignorant
and commonplace, poor sheep in a driver's hand.

"Poor devils," he thought, speaking out of the thoughts and feelings of
a bygone period of success. "Next," said one of the instructors.

"You're next," said a neighbour, touching him.

He went out and climbed on the platform. The instructor took it for
granted that no preliminaries were needed.

"You see this handle," he said, reaching up to an electric cut-off,
which was fastened to the roof. "This throws the current off or on. If
you want to reverse the car you turn it over here. If you want to send
it forward, you put it over here. If you want to cut off the power, you
keep it in the middle."

Hurstwood smiled at the simple information.

"Now, this handle here regulates your speed. To here," he said, pointing
with his finger, "gives you about four miles an hour. This is eight.
When it's full on, you make about fourteen miles an hour."

Hurstwood watched him calmly. He had seen motormen work before. He knew
just about how they did it, and was sure he could do as well, with a
very little practice.

The instructor explained a few more details, and then said:

"Now, we'll back her up."

Hurstwood stood placidly by, while the car rolled back into the yard.

"One thing you want to be careful about, and that is to start easy. Give
one degree time to act before you start another. The one fault of most
men is that they always want to throw her wide open. That's bad. It's
dangerous, too. Wears out the motor. You don't want to do that."

"I see," said Hurstwood.

He waited and waited, while the man talked on.

"Now you take it," he said, finally.

The ex-manager laid hand to the lever and pushed it gently, as he
thought. It worked much easier than he imagined, however, with the
result that the car jerked quickly forward, throwing him back against
the door. He straightened up sheepishly, while the instructor stopped
the car with the brake.

"You want to be careful about that," was all he said.

Hurstwood found, however, that