hings
necessary for umbrella-mending. Both on his way to the store and back he
kept his eyes open. He realized that his capital depended largely upon
chance and good luck. He considered that he had extraordinary good
luck when he returned with three more umbrellas. He had discovered one
propped against the counter of the store, turned inside out. He had
inquired to whom it belonged, and had been answered to anybody who
wanted it. David had seized upon it with secret glee. Then, unheard-of
good fortune, he had found two more umbrellas on his way home; one was
in an ash-can, the other blowing along like a belated bat beside the
trolley track. It began to seem to David as if the earth might be
strewn with abandoned umbrellas. Before he began his work he went to
the farmer's and returned in triumph, driven in the farm-wagon, with
his cackling hens and quite a load of household furniture, besides some
bread and pies. The farmer's wife was one of those who are able to give,
and make receiving greater than giving. She had looked at David, who
was older than she, with the eyes of a mother, and his pride had melted
away, and he had held out his hands for her benefits, like a child who
has no compunctions about receiving gifts because he knows that they are
his right of childhood.

Henceforth David prospered--in a humble way, it is true, still he
prospered. He journeyed about the country, umbrellas over his shoulder,
little bag of tools in hand, and reaped an income more than sufficient
for his simple wants. His hair had grown, and also his beard. Nobody
suspected his history. He met the young girls whom he had terrified
on the road often, and they did not know him. He did not, during the
winter, travel very far afield. Night always found him at home, warm,
well fed, content, and at peace. Sometimes the old farmer on whose land
he lived dropped in of an evening and they had a game of checkers. The
old man was a checker expert. He played with unusual skill, but David
made for himself a little code of honor. He would never beat the old
man, even if he were able, oftener than once out of three evenings. He
made coffee on these convivial occasions. He made very good coffee, and
they sipped as they moved the men and kings, and the old man chuckled,
and David beamed with peaceful happiness.

But the next spring, when he began to realize that he had mended for a
while all the umbrellas in the vicinity and that his trade was flagging,