e other?" he asked.

"Well," I said, "we are just entering business. In the first case I
charged you merely for the work done; in the second, I charge you for
the idea."

"What idea?" he inquired.

"The idea that cleanliness is part of any business man's capital."

"Well, go ahead."

When both signs were polished I offered to do the big plate-glass
windows for ten cents each. This was thirty cents below the regular
price, and I was permitted to do the job. Tim, of course, took his cap
off, rolled his shirtsleeves up and worked with a will beside me.
After that, we swept the sidewalk, earning the total sum of
thirty-five cents. We tried to do other stores, but the nationality of
most of them was against us; nevertheless, in the course of the
afternoon, we made a dollar and a half. I took Tim to "Beefsteak
John's," and we had dinner. Then I began to boast of the performance
and to warn Tim that on the following Sunday afternoon I should
explain my success to the men in the bunk-house.

"Yes, yes, indeed, yer honour," said Tim, "y're a janyus! There's no
doubt about that at all, at all! But----"

"Go on," I said.

"I was jist switherin'," said Tim, "what a wontherful thing ut is that
a man kin always hev worruk whin he invints ut."

"Well, that's worth knowing, Tim," I said, disappointedly. "Did you
learn anything else?"

"There's jist one thing that you forgot, yer honour."

"What is it?" I asked.

"Begorra, you forgot that if all the brains in the bunk-house wor put
together they cudn't think of a thrick like that--the thrick of
cleaning a window wid stuff from a dhrugstore! They aint got brains."

"Why haven't they?"

"Ach, begorra, I dunno except for the same raisin that a fish hasn't
no horns!"

We retraced our steps to the drugstore and the tailor-shop and the
hardware store, and paid our bills and I handed over what was left to
Tim.

This experiment taught me more than it taught Tim. It made a better
student of me. I had investigated the cases of a hundred men in that
same bunk-house--their nationality, age and occupation--and I had
tried to find out the cause of their failure. And my superficial
inquiry led me to the conclusion that the use of intoxicating liquor
was the chief cause.

The following table shows the trade, nationality and age of one of our
Sunday audiences in the B---- bunk-house. The audience numbered 108,
and were all well-known individually to the Lodging House Missionary.