was anything to be made out of his new friend he was
determined to make it.

They turned down a side street, perhaps because the stranger's course
led that way, perhaps because he was not proud of his new acquaintance.

"So you've had poor luck," he remarked, by way of starting the
conversation.

"Yes," grumbled Martin, "you may say that. Things have all been ag'inst
me. It's a pretty hard rub for a poor man to get a livin' here."

"Just so," said the other. "What's your business?"

"I'm a carpenter."

"And you can't find work?"

"No," said Martin. "Besides," he added, after a pause, "my health aint
very good. Hard work don't agree with me."

He might have said that hard drinking did not agree with him, and this
would have been rather nearer the truth. But he was afraid his new
friend would offer to find him employment as a carpenter, and for this
he was not very anxious. There had been a time when he was content to
work early and late, for good wages, but he had of late years led such a
shiftless and vagabond life, that honest industry had no more attraction
for him, and he preferred to get his living by hook or crook, in fact
in any way he could, rather than take the most direct path to a good
living by working hard for it.

"What is your name?"

"James Martin. What's yours?"

"Mine," said the stranger, pausing, and fixing his eyes thoughtfully
upon Martin; "well, you may call me Smith."

"That aint a very uncommon name," said Martin, thinking he had
perpetrated a good joke.

"Just so," said the stranger, composedly. "I've been told so often."

"Well, Mr. Smith, do you think you could help me to some light business
that wouldn't be too hard on my health?"

"Perhaps I might," said the other. "What do you think you would like?"

"Why," said Martin, "if I only had a little capital, I could set up a
small cigar store, or maybe a drinkin' saloon."

"That would be light and genteel, no doubt," said Smith, "but confining.
You'd have to be in the store early and late."

"I might have a boy to stay there when I wanted to go out," suggested
Martin.

"So you might," said the other. "There doesn't seem any objection, if
you can only raise the capital."

This was rather a powerful objection, however, especially as Mr. Smith
offered no encouragement about supplying the capital himself. Martin saw
this, and he added, "I only mentioned this. I aint any objection to
anything else that's light and easy. Do you