Just the day before, the "House" to which he had been sent had failed. Two years had he spent in grinding at its account books, perched on a three-legged stool, and now he found himself suddenly cast loose on the world. Of course when the stool was knocked from under him his salary was stopped, and he was told by his employers that it would be necessary for him to go elsewhere to earn a subsistence. This was rather a startling piece of advice, and for a time Frank felt much depressed, but on returning to his lodgings, the day he received his dismissal, his eye fell on his palette and brushes, which he at once seized, and, hastening out to his favourite tree, was soon so thoroughly absorbed in the study of "nature" that his sorrows vanished like morning mist. After three hours' steady work he arose refreshed in soul and comforted. Thereafter he returned to his lodgings and sat down to think over his prospects. His cogitations were temporarily interrupted, and afterwards materially assisted, by a short thick-set man of about thirty years of age who entered with a deferential air, and pulled his forelock. "Come in, Joe. I was just thinking over my future plans, and I daresay you can assist me, being, I suppose, in the same fix with myself." Joe Graddy had been a porter in the "House" which had failed, and was indeed in the "same fix," as Frank said, with himself. "I've comed, sir," said Joe, "to ax yer advice, an' to offer ye my sarvice, it it's of any use," said the porter, who was a shrewd straightforward man, and had originally been a sailor. "If you had come to offer me advice and ask my services," said Frank, "I would have been better pleased to see you. However, sit down and let me hear what you have to say." "Well, sir," said Joe; "this is wot I've got for to say, that we are in what the Yankees call a pretty considerable fix." "I know it, Joe; but how do you think we are to get out of the fix?" "That's just wot I comed for to ax," said the man; "and when you've told me how, I'll lend a hand to weigh anchor an' set sail. The fact is, I'm in want of a place, and I'm willing to engage with _you_, sir."