g to everlasting smash.

That day made young Jim a candidate for a job. It didn't take him long
to decide that the Lord would attend to keeping up the visible supply of
poetry, and that he had better turn his attention to the stocks of mess
pork. Next morning he was laying for me with a letter of introduction
when I got to the office, and when he found that I wouldn't have a
private secretary at any price, he applied for every other position on
the premises right down to office boy. I told him I was sorry, but I
couldn't do anything for him then; that we were letting men go, but I'd
keep him in mind, and so on. The fact was that I didn't think a fellow
with Jim's training would be much good, anyhow. But Jim hung on--said
he'd taken a fancy to the house, and wanted to work for it. Used to call
by about twice a week to find out if anything had turned up.

Finally, after about a month of this, he wore me down so that I stopped
him one day as he was passing me on the street. I thought I'd find out
if he really was so red-hot to work as he pretended to be; besides, I
felt that perhaps I hadn't treated the boy just right, as I had
delivered quite a jag of that wheat to his father myself.

"Hello, Jim," I called; "do you still want that job?"

"Yes, sir," he answered, quick as lightning.

"Well, I tell you how it is, Jim," I said, looking up at him--he was one
of those husky, lazy-moving six-footers--"I don't see any chance in the
office, but I understand they can use another good, strong man in one of
the loading gangs."

I thought that would settle Jim and let me out, for it's no joke lugging
beef, or rolling barrels and tierces a hundred yards or so to the cars.
But Jim came right back at me with, "Done. Who'll I report to?"

That sporty way of answering, as if he was closing a bet, made me surer
than ever that he was not cut out for a butcher. But I told him, and off
he started hot-foot to find the foreman. I sent word by another route to
see that he got plenty to do.

I forgot all about Jim until about three months later, when his name was
handed up to me for a new place and a raise in pay. It seemed that he
had sort of abolished his job. After he had been rolling barrels a
while, and the sport had ground down one of his shoulders a couple of
inches lower than the other, he got to scheming around for a way to make
the work easier, and he hit on an idea for a sort of overhead railroad
system, by which the barrels c