“I hope the dream will turn out true,” thought our hero hopefully, as he dressed himself leisurely.
CHAPTER XXIV
TOM GETS A PLACE.
TOM SPENT five days in pursuit of employment, but without success. True, he made three dollars one day by carrying a message, but when this was offset against an expenditure of forty dollars, it did not look encouraging.
Our hero, though naturally sanguine, begun to feel anxious. Reluctant as he might be to do so, he feared that he should be obliged to ask Mr. Stoddard for assistance. On the second day he had called upon that gentleman at the California Hotel, and been most kindly received. Tom had every reason to regard him as a man of large property, and willing to help him.
On the morning of the sixth day he made a second call at the hotel.
“Is Mr. Stoddard at home,” he inquired at the office.
“He’s gone away,” said the clerk.
“Gone away!” repeated Tom, in accents of dismay.