By the end of the week Tom had settled down into his new life. In the mornings he was up at half-past six and by seven-thirty had dressed, breakfasted, and reached the store. There, at first under the superintendence of Joe Gillig and later quite by himself, he swept the store from front to back, dusted off cases and shelves, and emptied waste-baskets. At first Joe helped him, but gradually he was left to attend to this work alone. By hurrying he was just able to finish it by twenty-five minutes past eight. Then he raced across the three blocks to the high school and arrived there usually as the gong rang. At half-past twelve there was a half-hour recess for lunch. The second day at school Tom discovered that there was a lunch room in the basement and that he could buy hot soup, sandwiches, coffee, milk, cake, and fruit at much cheaper prices than at the outside restaurants. After a day or two he got into the habit of eating a rather hearty breakfast in the cleanest of the little restaurants on Locust Street, satisfying his appetite at noon with a bowl of soup, a sandwich, and a glass of milk, and then dining after the store had closed. At three o’clock school was over and he was free to return to the store. There was always plenty to do there, as Mr. Wright had intimated, and after that first day Tom didn’t have to hunt very hard for work. He washed windows, ran errands, packed orders in big cases down in the packing room, and learned to use marking-pot and brush with some dexterity, replaced goods on the shelves after Mr. Wright had served a customer--for the junior partner never was known to put goods back into place again,--polished the brass railings outside the windows and the brass on the door, and, in short, made himself generally useful. Perhaps Joe Gillig imposed on him a little; Tom suspected as much; but Joe was always kind and patient with him and Tom liked him. Later, when the weather grew cold, Tom was put in charge of the hot-water heater in the basement, and he had to shovel coal and ashes and sift out cinders and trundle ash-barrels to the elevator and roll them to the edge of the sidewalk above. It was heavy work, a whole lot of it, and if Tom had not been used to heavy work he could hardly have got through with it. As it was, however, the only effect it had on him was to harden and develop his muscles and increase a naturally healthy appetite.