But all the good resolutions in the world and all the grim determination sometimes fail, and again Fortune turned a deaf ear to Wayne’s petitions. The nearest he came to landing a place was when a foreman at a rambling old factory at the far end of the town offered him a job packing spools if he could produce a union card. Wayne not only couldn’t produce such a thing but didn’t know what it was until the foreman impatiently explained, assuring him that there was no use in his seeking work in the factories unless he first became a member of a union. This was something of an exaggeration, as Wayne ultimately learned, but for the present it was sufficient to just about double his load of discouragement. He confined his efforts to shops and places of retail business after that but had no luck, and returned to the shed when the street lights began to appear, hungry and tired and ready to give up, to find that Fate was not yet through with him for that day. For once June had fared almost as sadly as Wayne and only a solitary ten-cent piece was the result of his efforts. June was apologetic and would have recited his experiences at length, but Wayne didn’t have the heart to listen. “It doesn’t matter, June,” he said listlessly. “It wasn’t your fault. At that, you made ten cents more than I did. I reckon there’s only one thing to do now.” “What’s that, Mas’ Wayne?” “Buy a stamp with two cents of that ten and write back to Mr. Higgins for money to get home with. I reckon we’re just about at the end of the halter, June.” “Don’ you believe that, Mas’ Wayne,” replied June stoutly. “An’ don’ you go writin’ no letter to that old skinflint stepdaddy of yours. Jus’ you give me another chance an’ see what I goin’ to bring home tomorrow! We’ll go get us a cup of coffee an’ then we’ll feel a heap perkier, yes, sir! An’ then we’ll jus’ go to sleep an’ get up in the mornin’ feelin’ fine an’ start right out an’ lan’ somethin’. Don’ you go gettin’ discouraged, Mas’ Wayne. We’s goin’ to be livin’ on the fat of the lan’ in two-three days!” “There’s another town, bigger than this, June, about twenty miles from here. Maybe we’d better mosey along over there and see if things are any better. Seems to me I’ve been in most every place in this town asking for work now, and I’m beginning to forget which ones I’ve been to and which ones I haven’t.” “Well, I don’ know,” answered June. “Sometimes it seems like it’s the wisest thing to stay right to home an’ not go projeckin’ ’roun’. We’s got a comfor’ble place to sleep here, Mas’ Wayne, an’ there ain’ no tellin’ what would happen to us if we went totin’ off to this other place, is there? ’Spose you an’ me goes an’ has that coffee first. Seems like I can always think a heap better after meals.” “A cup of coffee isn’t much of a meal,” objected Wayne, “but I reckon it’s going to taste mighty good to me. We’ll go to the lunch-wagon for it. You get better coffee there than the other places we’ve been to.”