rward, his cheeks burning with the sudden perception
that he had been ridiculed. He saw a sharp-eyed lady counting money,
just inside the little window, but she moved away, and Jack was
confronted by a very stern, white-whiskered gentleman.

"What do you want?" the man asked.

"I'd like to know if you'll hire another boy, and what you're paying?"
said Jack, bravely.

"No; I don't want any boy," replied the man in the coop, savagely.
"You get right out."

"Tell you what you _do_ want," said Jack, for his temper was rising
fast, "you'd better get a politer set of clerks!"

"I will, if there is any more of this nonsense," said the head of the
house, sharply. "Now, that's enough. No more impertinence."

Jack was all but choking with mortification, and he wheeled and marched
out of the store.

"I wasn't afraid of him," he thought, "and I ought to have spoken to
him first thing. I might have known better than to have asked those
fellows. I sha'n't be green enough to do that again. I'll ask the
head man next time."

That was what he tried to do in six clothing-stores, one after another;
but in each case he made a failure. In two of them, they said the
managing partner was out; and then, when he tried to find out whether
they wanted a boy, the man he asked became angry and showed him the
door. In three more, he was at first treated politely, and then
informed that they already had hundreds of applications. To enter the
sixth store was an effort, but he went in.

"One of the firm? Yes, sir," said the floor-walker. "There he is."

Only a few feet from him stood a man so like the one whose face had
glowered at him through that cashier's window in the first store that
Jack hesitated a moment, but the clerk spoke out:

"Wishes to speak to you, Mr. Hubbard."

"This way, my boy. What is it?"

Jack was surprised by the full, mellow, benevolent voice that came from
under the white moustaches.

"Do you want to hire a boy, sir?" he inquired.

"I do not, my son. Where are you from?" asked Mr. Hubbard, with a
kindlier expression than before.

Jack told him, and answered two or three other questions.

"From up in the country, eh?" he said. "Have you money enough to get
home again?"

"I could get home," stammered Jack, "but there isn't any chance for a
boy up in Crofield."

"Ten chances there for every one there is in the city, my boy," said
Mr. Hubbard. "One hundred boys here for every place that's vac