"Um!" grunted the shipper. "It's likely! Why, I've done business with this office just as it is for more than thirty years and never found it necessary yet to change things."
But in the end, he consented. Alec moved their two desks somewhat, so as to get better light on them and shifted a few other things. But the main thing he wanted to do was to clear out those dusty old pigeonholes, and get the contents arranged better. So he began to take the contents from pigeonhole after pigeonhole, laying the things he took out in orderly little piles and trying to rearrange and classify them. But when he reached the second row in the rack, he suddenly lost all interest in his work. Out of the pigeonhole came a familiar-looking pamphlet, like dozens of government bulletins Alec had seen at the high school in Central City. Alec was about to drop it on the desk when the title caught his eye. It was "Aids to Successful Oyster-Culture." The bulletin had recently been issued by the New Jersey Experiment station.
"Where did you get this?" cried Alec, all afire with interest.
"What?" said the shipper, glancing up from his work. Then, after seeing what it was, "Oh! That! Why, that's something the state got out. Somebody sent me a copy."
"Is it interesting?" asked Alec.
"To tell the truth, I never had time to read it. I stuck it in that pigeonhole and there it's been ever since."
Alec looked aghast. "Never read it!" he cried. "Would you be willing to lend it to me? I'll take good care of it and be sure to return it."
"Take it and keep it. I don't want it."
Alec folded the bulletin and placed it in his pocket as though it were rarest treasure. Into his mind flashed the Master's words: "The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner."
"Who knows?" he said to himself, "but this may be the very corner-stone for the structure I intend to build? It may be the very thing I have been searching for. My entire future may depend upon what I read in this bulletin."