"I can't employ you," he said coldly.
"Why not, sir?"
"Because your record is not good."
Ben's eyes flashed with proper indignation.
"I don't understand, sir," he said, in a dignified tone.
"It strikes me that my language is plain."
"What complaints were made of me? I should like to know in what respect I failed to do my duty."
"Probably you know as well as I can tell you," said the superintendent. "At any rate, I have no time to waste in examining into the matter. I prefer to take a boy who has nothing against him. Next."
Ben left the office, smarting not so much at the failure to obtain employment, as at the unfounded charges trumped up against him.
Just outside the office he met Sam Archer.