CASE WORKER. When? TED. Twenty-eight years ago. CASE WORKER. No, no, the date! TED. March 20, 1907. CASE WORKER. Father's name? TED. Nathaniel Brooks. CASE WORKER. His birthplace? TED. New York City. CASE WORKER. His ancestry? TED. The Pilgrim fathers. CASE WORKER. Your mother's name? TED. Susan Cartwright, born in Philadelphia. Her ancestors, American Quakers. CASE WORKER. [_Writing fast._] Wait a minute.--Both parents living? TED. Both dead. CASE WORKER. Brothers and sisters? TED. None. CASE WORKER. What other close kin? TED. I have one uncle and two aunts. CASE WORKER. Do they live in New York City? TED. It happens that none of them does. CASE WORKER. Then we don't need them. MARTIN. Pardon me, but how far in kinship does the responsibility go? CASE WORKER. It depends. We can't force uncles and aunts to contribute, but we sometimes give them the opportunity to do so. However, this doesn't look like a kin folks case. And now, young man, just what is your occupation? TED. I haven't any. That's my trouble. CASE WORKER. No occupation? You're not a minor. For adults occupation must be stated. TED. Very well, I am a collector. CASE WORKER. By what firms have you been employed? TED. None. CASE WORKER. Then how can you be a collector? TED. You said I must have an occupation. CASE WORKER. You are not helping me by lying and you may get yourself into trouble. MARTIN. Is it the first time you ever ran into a man, who needed relief, not because he had worked, but because he hadn't? CASE WORKER. [_Snappily._] I didn't prepare those blanks, but I have to fill them out. One can have an occupation, like stenography, when trained for it, even though they have never been employed. TED. All right, put that down and go ahead. CASE WORKER. Stenography? TED. No, collecting. CASE WORKER. But collectors aren't trained. One has to have worked at that. TED. Then say I worked as a collector for my father. CASE WORKER. What business was he in? TED. He was retired. CASE WORKER. Then what did you collect for him? TED. First editions. CASE WORKER. Please talk sense. MARTIN. Books. A book collector. CASE WORKER. You mean, a bookkeeper? TED. [_Bitterly._] We kept them as long as we could. My father died during the Wall Street panic. He'd gone bankrupt. Since you want to know how I lived, I lived for some time by selling my father's books. CASE WORKER. [_Writing._] Then you lived without working, on property that you inherited? TED. Yes, till that source was exhausted. CASE WORKER. When was that? TED. Some time ago. CASE WORKER. You must be definite. TED. Then say two years ago. CASE WORKER. You sold _all_ your father's books? TED. I still have the family Bible, a set of Shakespeare with the marginal notations made by father while he was at Oxford, and a few others. CASE WORKER. How much do you consider those books worth? TED. I consider them invaluable. CASE WORKER. But you must set a value upon them. TED. Why?