Tom wondered how a boy was ever going to get experience packing fine dishes, if he never had any practice on heavy ones, but he did not think it would do any good to ask the manager, so he left.
At the next place a boy was wanted to run errands, but as the wages were only two dollars a week, Tom knew he could not afford to take it, for he would hardly make his expenses. Then he saw an advertisement of a boy wanted in a machine shop.
“That might do,” he mused. “I’m fond of machinery, and I often used to go to the shop where father worked.”
“We want a boy to learn the trade,” said the foreman of the shop where Tom applied, and where the machinery made so much noise that every one had to shout to be heard. “It’s a good trade, and you can earn good wages at it.”
“How much do you pay?” asked Tom.
“Pay? We don’t pay anything the first year,” answered the foreman, in apparent surprise at the question. “I thought you wanted to learn the trade.”
“I’d like to,” said Tom, “but I want to live while I’m learning it. A trade wouldn’t do me much good if I starved to death, and I’d do that if I didn’t get some money.”
“I guess you won’t suit,” was the comment, as the foreman turned back to the lathe which he had stopped while he talked to Tom.
“No, I guess not,” was our hero’s comment.
He had exhausted the possibilities of the advertising list, so he strolled around in the streets where there were many office buildings, hoping he might see some boys he knew, who could tell him where he might apply for work, or where he might see that magical sign “Boy Wanted” hanging in front of a store or office.