or one of the minor offenses against the law. His
term would probably have been shorter, but the judge had been careless,
and he had no friends. Stebbins had never been the sort to make many
friends, although he had never cherished animosity toward any human
being. Even some injustice in his sentence had not caused him to feel
any rancor.

During his stay in the prison he had not been really unhappy. He had
accepted the inevitable-the yoke of the strong for the weak--with a
patience which brought almost a sense of enjoyment. But, now that he
was free, he had suddenly become alert, watchful of chances for his
betterment. From being a mere kenneled creature he had become as a
hound on the scent, the keenest on earth--that of self-interest. He was
changed, while yet living, from a being outside the world to one with
the world before him. He felt young, although he was a middle-aged,
almost elderly man. He had in his pocket only a few dollars. He might
have had more had he not purchased the checked suit and had he not given
much away. There was another man whose term would be up in a week, and
he had a sickly wife and several children. Stebbins, partly from native
kindness and generosity, partly from a sentiment which almost amounted
to superstition, had given him of his slender store. He had been
deprived of his freedom because of money; he said to himself that his
return to it should be heralded by the music of it scattered abroad for
the good of another.

Now and then as he walked Stebbins removed his new straw hat, wiped his
forehead with a stiff new handkerchief, looked with some concern at the
grime left upon it, then felt anxiously of his short crop of grizzled
hair. He would be glad when it grew only a little, for it was at present
a telltale to observant eyes. Also now and then he took from another
pocket a small mirror which he had just purchased, and scrutinized his
face. Every time he did so he rubbed his cheeks violently, then viewed
with satisfaction the hard glow which replaced the yellow prison pallor.
Every now and then, too, he remembered to throw his shoulders back, hold
his chin high, and swing out his right leg more freely. At such times
he almost swaggered, he became fairly insolent with his new sense of
freedom. He felt himself the equal if not the peer of all creation.
Whenever a carriage or a motor-car passed him on the country road he
assumed, with the skill of an actor, the air of a business man