“That’s what I thought. How about that quarter?”

“I am out of work myself and quarters are scarce with me.”

“That’s what you all say! There’s small show for a good, industrious man.”

Chester thought to himself that if the stranger was a good, industrious man he was unfortunate in his appearance.

“I have sympathy for all who are out of work,” he said. “Mother and I are poor. When I did work I only got three dollars a week.”

“Where did you work?”

“In Mr. Tripp’s store, in the center of the village.”

“I know. It’s a two-story building, ain’t it, with a piazza?”

“Yes.”

“Has the old fellow got money?”