the
letter. He searched long in vain, because his hands trembled, and he
was nervous under the eyes of this great personage who stood unmoved
and looked calmly at him.

Finally the missive was found and produced, though not before the
perspiration was standing thick on Silas's brow. The head waiter took
the sheet.

"Ve'y well, suh, ve'y well. You are evidently the p'oper pusson, as I
reco'nize this as my own chirography."

The up-country boy stood in awed silence. He thought he had never
heard such fine language before.

"I ca'culate that you have nevah had no experience in hotel work,"
pursued Mr. Buckner somewhat more graciously.

"I's nevah done nuffin' but wo'k on a farm; but evahbody 'lows I's
right handy." The fear that he would be sent back home without
employment gave him boldness.

"I see, I see," said the head waiter. "Well, we'll endeavor to try an'
see how soon you can learn. Mistah Smith, will you take this young man
in charge, an' show him how to get about things until we are ready to
try him in the dinin'-room?"

A rather pleasant-faced yellow boy came over to Silas and showed him
where to put his things and what to do.

"I guess it'll be a little strange at first, if you've never been a
hotel man, but you'll ketch on. Just you keep your eye on me."

All that day as Silas blundered about slowly and awkwardly, he looked
with wonder and admiration at the ease and facility with which his
teacher and the other men did their work. They were so calm, so
precise, and so self-sufficient. He wondered if he would ever be like
them, and felt very hopeless as the question presented itself to him.

They were a little prone to laugh at him, but he was so humble and so
sensible that he thought he must be laughable; so he laughed a little
shamefacedly at himself, and only tried the harder to imitate his
companions. Once when he dropped a dish upon the floor, he held his
breath in consternation, but when he found that no one paid any
attention to it, he picked it up and went his way.

He was tired that night, more tired than ploughing had ever made him,
and was thankful when Smith proposed to show him at once to the rooms
apportioned to the servants. Here he sank down and fell into a doze as
soon as his companion left him with the remark that he had some
studying to do. He found afterward that Smith was only a temporary
employee at the Springs, coming there during the vacations of the
school which he atten