The library work interested me more than my study had done. Even the
routine detail of it was not bad and I had much time to spend on the Old
English which fascinated me. I was not ambitious and would have been
content to spend my life in that peaceful, pleasant town. But Prof.
Meers had other plans for me. Back of my indolent interest in old
books, he was optimistic enough to see a promise of great scholarship.
He was better as a critic of literature than as a judge of men. He
continually made plans for me. I paid scant attention to them until
almost a year had passed and we were beginning to see the end of the
work he could offer me. I began to speculate with more interest about
what I would do next.
Without telling me about it, Prof. Meers wrote to the head of a New York
Library, whom he knew and secured a position for me. When he received
the news he came to me with a more definite plan than I would ever have
been able to work out for myself. He knew that a certain publishing
house wanted to bring out a text book edition of "Ralph Roister
Doister." He had given them my name and I was to prepare the manuscript
during my free hours. This he told me would not bring me much money,
but some reputation and would make it easier for him to find other
openings for me, where I could develop my taste for Old English. I
caught some of his enthusiasm and set out for my new work with high
hopes.
Of my first weeks in the city there is little memory left except of a
disheartening search for a place to live. After much tramping about I
took a forlorn hall bedroom in a not over peaceful family. The quest
for an eating place was equally unsatisfactory.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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