The young man mixed the soda, put in a liberal helping of ice cream, set it before her with a spoon in it, rested the knuckles of his brown hairy hands on the counter and said:
"It is hot."
"Yes, indeed," assented Susan. "I wonder where I could leave my bundle for a while. I'm a stranger and I want to look for a boarding house."
"You might leave it here with me," said the young man. "That's about our biggest line of trade—that and postage stamps and telephone—and the directory. "He laughed heartily. Susan did not see why; she did not like the sound, either, for the young man's deformity of lower jaw deformed his laughter as well as his speech. However, she smiled politely and ate and drank her soda slowly.
"I'll be glad to take care of your bundle," the young man said presently. "Ever been here before?"
"No," said Susan. "That is, not since I was about four years old."
"I was four," said the young man, "when a horse stepped on my mouth in the street."
"My, how dreadful!" exclaimed Susan.
"You can see some of the scar yet," the young man assured her, and he pointed to his curiously sunken mouth. "The doctors said it was the most remarkable case of the kind on record," continued he proudly. "That was what led me into the medical line. You don't seem to have your boarding house picked."
"I was going to look in the papers."