or four dollars a week. As you are pretty good at
figures, we will give you four."

"I made more than that at my trade. I can't afford to work for four
dollars a week, sir. It would only pay my board."

"What do you ask?"

"I will work eight weeks, say, at six dollars a week."

Mr. Whippleton objected; but I was firm. He evidently thought I was
just the person he wanted, and he finally consented to my terms, but
insisted upon making the time a year. I told him I could not agree for
a longer time than I had named without consulting my father. He yielded
this point also, and I promised to be at the counting-room of
Collingsby and Whippleton the next morning.

I walked home with Mrs. Whippleton, who again assured me that she was
always willing to do what she could for a "feller-cretur."

CHAPTER VII.

IN WHICH PHIL TAKES HIS PLACE AT THE DESK, AND IS ENGAGED FOR A YEAR.

When I reached the house of Mrs. Whippleton, I took my writing
materials from my bag, and wrote a long letter to my father, detailing
the incidents of my journey, and explaining the motives which had
induced me to take the situation in the counting-room of Collingsby and
Whippleton. I was satisfied that he would not object, though he might
not fully approve the course I had taken. I was up very early the next
morning, and made a hurried survey of the city before breakfast. I
walked from Washington Street, where my boarding-house was located,
through Halstead Street, to the north branch of the Chicago River,
where I found the lumber-yard of the firm. I read the sign and examined
the locality with interest.

I ate my breakfast at half past six; and though the beefsteak was very
tough, and the butter very strong, I sustained my reputation as a good
eater. I had lived too long in the wilderness, where we did not often
have any butter, to be thrown off my balance by the accident of a
rancid article, and I had certainly eaten buffalo meat that was as much
tougher than any beef as sole leather is tougher than brown paper.
Strong butter and tough beef are not good, I allow; but they are by no
means the sum total of human misery. I had a clean conscience, and I
ate a hearty breakfast.

I had been told to be at the counting-room at half past seven; but I
was on hand at seven. I saw several salesmen and laborers in the
lumberyard, but there was no one in the counting-room. I seated myself,
and picked up the morning paper. I did not find any paragr