?"

"Oh, I'm not in the musical business," said Glascow. "I have a great
love for music, and wish to thoroughly understand it. But my business
is quite different. I am a night druggist, and that is the reason I
have so much leisure for reading."

"A night druggist?" repeated Mr. Tolman, inquiringly.

"Yes, sir," said the other. "I am in a large downtown drug store which
is kept open all night, and I go on duty after the day clerks leave."

"And does that give you more leisure?" asked Mr. Tolman.

"It seems to," answered Glascow. "I sleep until about noon, and then I
have the rest of the day, until seven o'clock, to myself. I think that
people who work at night can make a more satisfactory use of their own
time than those who work in the daytime. In the summer I can take a
trip on the river, or go somewhere out of town, every day, if I like."

"Daylight is more available for many things, that is true," said Mr.
Tolman. "But is it not dreadfully lonely sitting in a drug store all
night? There can't be many people to come to buy medicine at night. I
thought there was generally a night-bell to drug stores, by which a
clerk could be awakened if anybody wanted anything."

"It's not very lonely in our store at night," said Glascow. "In fact,
it's often more lively then than in the daytime. You see, we are right
down among the newspaper offices, and there's always somebody coming in
for soda-water, or cigars, or something or other. The store is a
bright, warm place for the night editors and reporters to meet together
and talk and drink hot soda, and there's always a knot of 'em around
the stove about the time the papers begin to go to press. And they're
a lively set, I can tell you, sir. I've heard some of the best stories
I ever heard in my life told in our place after three o'clock in the
morning."

"A strange life!" said Mr. Tolman. "Do you know, I never thought that
people amused themselves in that way--and night after night, I suppose."

"Yes, sir, night after night, Sundays and all."

The night druggist now took up his book.

"Going home to read?" asked Mr. Tolman.

"Well, no," said the other. "It's rather cold this afternoon to read.
I think I'll take a brisk walk."

"Can't you leave your book until you return!" asked Mr. Tolman. "That
is, if you will come back this way. It's an awkward book to carry
about."

"Thank you, I will," said Glascow. "I shall come back this way."

When he h