The whole experience was new to him. He had been out of work before, but he had had a home, and in its shelter he could tide over the depression which had cost him his job. Now his home was gone, and he was adrift without support. But he was young and strong and accustomed to work, and all that he sought was a chance to win his way. And yet his very struggles for a footing seemed to sink him into deeper difficulty. The conditions which he was forced to face seemed to conspire against the possibility of his success. It was the feeling inspired by this seeming truth, a dim, dull feeling vaguely realized, yet awful, that bore hard upon him, and that loomed portentous as with remorseless fate. He was struggling with it in an agony of helpless discouragement, and presently he found utterance for it in concrete form. “One boss I struck for a job, I thought he was going to give it to me sure,” he said. “He asked me where I’d worked before, and why I’d quit, and how long I’d been at the trade. And just then I felt something crawling on my neck. It was a crumb, ---- it! The boss seen it, too. He got mad, ---- him! and he chewed a rag, and he said if he had twenty jobs, he wouldn’t give one to a lousy hobo like me.” Clark was growing increasingly vehement in his recital. He rose to his feet and bent over me, while the hot words came hissing between his teeth: “I ain’t never been like this in my life before, and, great God Almighty! I’d be clean if I could!” After a moment he added, in a hard, clear tone: “We’ve got some money, partner, let’s go and get a drink.” My extra quarter flashed into my mind as a hopeful resource. I held out the two quarters and a nickel on the palm of my hand where the street light would strike them. I told Clark of my windfall, and of the possible chance of many another such to help us out in the future. “I earned this in ten minutes,” I said, holding out a quarter, “and I know where twenty cents of it will buy us each a hot stew and all the bread that we can eat. And then I’ve found a lodging-house in South Clark Street where we can each get a wash and a fairly decent bed in good air for fifteen cents, and we’ll have enough left to keep us in food to-morrow.” Clark hesitated. I enlarged on the attractiveness of the restaurant and the comfort of eating at leisure at one of its clean tables, and the long, unbroken rest that we should have at the lodgings. Clark was tired to the bone, and he yielded. It was my turn now to give him a shoulder as we walked to our evening meal.