Samuel the Seeker | Page 8

give it to you."
"Mind! No nonsense now!"
"No. Let me out!"
"I'll bat you over the head if you try it," growled the voice; and the boy stood trembling while the hasp was unfastened and the door was pushed back a little. The light of a lantern flashed in through the crack, blinding him.
"Now hand out the money," said the stranger, standing at one side for safety.
"Yes," said Samuel, fumbling with the pin in his waistcoat. "But I can't see to count it."
"Be quick! I'll count it!"
And so he shoved out the wad. Fingers seized it; and then the light vanished, and he heard the sound of footsteps running.
For a moment he did not understand. Then, "Give me my five dollars!" he yelled, and rolled back the door and leaped out. He was just in time to see the figure with the lantern vanish among the cars up the track.
He started to run up the track and tripped over a tie and fell headlong into a ditch. When he scrambled to his feet again the long train was beginning to move, and the light of the lantern was nowhere to be seen.
CHAPTER IV
Samuel's money was gone, but he was suffering too keenly from hunger and thirst to worry about it for more than a minute. Then the thought came to him--he was here in a lonely place at night, and the train was going! If he were left he might still starve.
He ran over and caught the iron ladder of one of the freight cars and drew himself up and clung there. Later on he climbed on top of the car; but the wind was too cold--he could not stand it, and had to climb down again. And then he realized that he had left the bundle of his belongings in the empty car.
Fortunately for him the train began to slow up at the end of an hour or so, and peering out Samuel saw lights ahead. Also there were lights here and there in the landscape, and he realized that he had come to a large town. The east was just beginning to turn gray, and faint shadows of buildings were visible.
Samuel got off and walked up the track very carefully, for he was stiff as well as weak. There was a light in one of the offices at the depot, and he looked in at the window and saw a man seated at a desk writing busily. He knocked at the door.
"Come in," said a voice, and he entered.
"Please, may I have a drink of water?" he asked.
"Over there in the corner," said the man, scarcely looking up from his papers.
There was a bucket and dipper, and Samuel drank. The taste of the water was a kind of ecstasy to him--he drank until he could drink no more.
Then he stood waiting. "I beg pardon, sir," he began timidly.
"Hey?" said the man.
"I'm nearly starved, sir. I've had nothing to eat for I don't know how long."
"Oh!" exclaimed the other. "So that's it. Get out!"
"You don't understand," began Samuel, perplexed.
"Get out!" cried the man. "That don't go in here. No beggars allowed!"
Beggars! The word struck Samuel like a whip-lash.
"I'm no beggar!" he cried wildly. "I--" And then he stopped. He had been going to say, "I will pay for it."
He went out burning with shame, and on the spot he took his resolution--come what might, he would never beg. He would not put a morsel of food into his mouth until he had earned it.
Across from the depot was a public square, and a broad street with trolley tracks. Samuel walked down the street; and then, feeling weak and seeing a dark doorway, he went in and crouched in a corner. For a while he dozed; and then it was daylight. People were passing.
He got more water at a fountain and felt better. He went down one of the poorer streets where a man was opening a shop. There was food in the window--fruit and bread--and the sight made him ravenous. But he asked for work and the man shook his head.
Samuel went on. Shops were opened here and there; and everywhere he asked for a job--for any little thing to do--and always it was No. Now and then he caught a whiff of some one's breakfast--bacon frying, and coffee or hot bread in a bake shop. But each time he gripped his hands together and set his teeth. He would not beg. He would find work.
And so on through the morning. He went into stores, big and little. Sometimes they answered politely--sometimes gruffly; but no one hesitated a moment. He went past warehouses, where men were loading wagons--surely there would be work here.
He spoke to a busy foreman in his shirt sleeves.
"How often must I tell you no?" cried the man.
"But