A
fellow can always land another job. I usually manage to get the hook
about twice a year; the work gets monotonous, and I suppose I lose
ambish."

Evan wondered where one would get to under those circumstances. If he
had stayed in the big city nine years instead of nine months he would
have ceased to wonder about position hunters; they would have become a
distinct element in urban life. As it was, the impression he received
was quite true to the actual condition of affairs: a large city was a
very precarious place.

However, the Canadian decided to stay in New York for the winter
anyway; it was lively then, he was told, with the presence of returned
"seasoners" and other summer absentees. He asked the cashier for
promotion, and received it, along with two dollars increase in salary.
He made up his mind to save five dollars a week; he could live and have
considerable pleasure on the other twelve dollars.

Mardi Gras was over; not a straw hat was to be seen; the mornings grew
chilly; theatres were in full swing. Then Miss Harris got Evan in with
a "crowd"; the department stores hauled out their Christmas things; and
with the first flurry of snow the whole town slid into winter.

The New York winter looked, at first, like a bluff. The man from
Canada refused to wear an overcoat until one day a breeze came sweeping
over the Atlantic and took him in hand; after that he had great respect
for the climate.

Ethel Harris made good as a comrade. She knew how to keep things
going. Evan was astonished at the ease with which he mixed in things;
the boys seemed to have a way of fixing up that he could hardly catch,
but they were a jovial bunch. An odd one was after the order of
Castle, but most of them resembled Bill Watson in manner. The girls
all expected to marry Riverside Drive property owners, but aside from
that they were sane and congenial. Evan knew about how much money they
made, and consequently took considerable delight in their
exaggerations. They were practically all stenographers.

It takes New Yorkers to be friendly. The city is so big it resembles
the world. In it there are as many countries as the world boasts, and
when the members of a social set meet they come like so many travellers
from the ends of the earth, bringing stories with them that Park Row
reporters never hear about. There is real life and entertainment in a
gathering of young Manhattanites.

Evan took great pleasure in those p