mforts incident to existence.

But all this was in the past. Unconsciously he was learning a lesson
and this first lesson would be hard--but very thorough, and the next
time he met Daddy Dunnigan he would take him by the hand. For here was
a man--a good man--in the making. But a man new to his surroundings. A
man who would learn hard--but quickly--and who would fight hard against
the very conditions which were to make him.

His perspective must first be broken on the wheel of experience, that
he might know human nature, and the relative worth of men. His
unplastic nature would one day be his chief bulwark; as now, it was his
chief stumbling block. For in his chosen life-work he must take
men--many men--rough men--of diverse codes and warring creeds, and with
them build an efficient unit for the conquering of nature in her own
fastnesses. And this thing requires not only knowledge and strength,
but courage, and the will to do or die.

Alighting from the caboose of the local freight train on the previous
evening, he entered Hod Burrage's door as he had entered the doors of
trades-places all his life. To him, Hod Burrage was not a personality,
but a menial existing for the sole purpose of waiting upon and
attending to the wants of him, Bill Carmody. The others--the old men,
and the crippled ones, and the hard-handed grubbers of stumps, who sat
about in faded mackinaws and patched overalls--he regarded not at all.

He deposited his pack-sack on the floor where its canvas sides,
outbulging with blankets and duffel, fairly shrieked their newness.

After some minutes of silence--a silence neither friendly nor hostile,
during which Bill was conscious that all eyes were turned upon him in
frank curiosity, he spoke--and in speaking, inadvertently antagonized
the entire male population of Hilarity. For in his speech was no word
of greeting.

He addressed no one in particular, but called peremptorily, and with a
trace of irritation, for a salesman.

Now, Hod Burrage was anything but a salesman. His goods either sold
themselves or remained on their shelves, and to Mr. Burrage it was a
matter of supreme indifference which. He was wont to remark to
hesitating or undecided customers that "if folks didn't know what they
wanted when they come into the store, they better keep away till they
find out."

So, in answer to the newcomer's demand, Hod shifted his quid and, with
exasperating deliberation, spat in the direction of a sawd