loor was not
heated, and its occupants therefore stayed away as much as possible.
His services as waiter were required only at dinner time, in exchange
for which he received that meal. His breakfast and luncheon he
procured as best he could; sometimes he dispensed with them entirely.
Crackers, milk, and fruit, as the cheapest articles of diet, appeared
oftenest on his menu. Sometimes he went fishing and surreptitiously
smuggled the cream of the catch up to his little abode, for Mrs.
Tupps' "rules to roomers," as affixed to the walls, were explicit: "No
cooking or washing allowed in rooms." But Mrs. Tupps, like her fires,
was nearly always out, for she was a member of the Woman's Relief
Corps, Ladies' Aid, Ladies' Guild, Woman's League, Suffragette
Society, Pioneer Society, and Eastern Star. At the meetings of these
various societies she was constant in attendance, so in her absence
her roomers "made hay," as David termed it, cooking their provender
and illicitly performing laundry work in the bathtub. Still, there
must always be "on guard" duty, for Mrs. Tupps was a stealthy stalker.
One saw her not, but now and then there was a faint rustle on the
stair. David's eyes and ears, trained to keenness, were patient and
vigilant, so he was generally chosen as sentinel, and he acquired new
caution, adroitness, and a quietness of movement.

There had been three or four close calls. Once, she had knocked at
his door as he was in the act of boiling eggs over the gas jet. In
the twinkling of an eye the saucepan was thrust under the bed, and
David, sweet and serene of expression, opened the door to the
inquisitive-eyed Tupps.

"I came to borrow a pen," she said shamelessly, her eyes penetrating
the cracks and crevices of the little room.

David politely regretted that he used an indelible pencil and
possessed no pens.

In the act of removing all records and remains of feasts, David became
an adept. Neat, unsuspicious looking parcels were made and conveyed,
after retiring hours, to a near-by vacant lot, where once had been
visible an excavation for a cellar, but this had been filled to street
level with tin cans, paper bags, butter bowls, cracker cases, egg
shells, and pie plates from the House of Tupps.

His miscellaneous employment, mentioned in his letter, was any sort of
work he could find to do.

David became popular with professors by reason of his record in
classes and the application and concentration he brought to