n
the office that was all my own. At every opportunity I had
familiarized myself with the work of the man above me and was on very
good terms with him. I waited patiently and confidently for the day
when Morse should call me in and announce his own advance and leave me
to fill his place. I might have to begin on two thousand but it was a
sure twenty-five hundred eventually to say nothing of what it led to.
The president of the company had begun as I had and had moved up the
same steps that now lay ahead of me.

In the meanwhile the life at home ran smoothly in spite of everything.
Neither the wife, the boy nor I was sick a day for we all had sound
bodies to start with. Our country-bred ancestors didn't need a will to
leave us those. If at times we felt a trifle pinched especially in the
matter of clothes, it was wonderful how rich Ruth contrived to make us
feel. She knew how to take care of things and though I didn't spend
half what some of the men spent on their suits, I went in town every
morning looking better than two-thirds of them. I was inspected from
head to foot before I started and there wasn't a wrinkle or a spot so
small that it could last twenty-four hours. I shined my own shoes and
pressed my own trousers and Ruth looked to it that this was done well.
Moreover she could turn a tie, clean and press it so that it looked
brand new. I think some of the neighbors even thought I was
extravagant in my dressing.

She did the same for herself and had caught the knack of seeming to
dress stylishly without really doing so. She had beautiful hair and
this in itself made her look well dressed. As for the boy he was a
model for them all.

In the meanwhile the boy had grown into short trousers and before we
knew it he was in school. It made it lonesome for her during the day
when he began to trudge off every morning at nine o'clock. She began
to look forward to Saturdays as eagerly as the boy did. Then the next
thing we knew he'd start off even earlier on that day to join his
playmates. Sunday was the only day either of us had him to ourselves.

After he began to go to school, Ruth and I seemed to begin another
life. In a way we felt all by ourselves once more. I didn't get home
until half past seven now and Dick was then abed. He was abed too when
I left in the morning. Of course he was never off my mind and if he
hadn't been asleep upstairs I guess I'd have known a difference. But
at the same time he was, in a sma