er. No use
in becoming sentimental or spoony about it. Now, own up, my position was
unpleasantly embarrassing, wasn't it?"

"It was not exhilarating."

"No. There was nothing cheering about it. However, I put on no long
face, though between ourselves I wished some other fellow stood in my
shoes."

"How considerate for the other fellow!"

"Well," continued Handy, "that's neither here nor there, but I made up
my mind to get out of that town bag and baggage and keep my date Monday
night, all the samee."

"I admire your pluck."

"Pluck? Nothing of the kind. Pluck had nothing to do with the case. It
was tact and resource that came to my assistance. Season your admiration
for a moment and I'll give you a wrinkle worth remembering. After a bite
and a snack I went to bed, not to worry, but to sleep. Let me say, by
way of comment, that a few hours' rest is a powerful rejuvenator. You
can do much better work in the morning after a good night's sleep than
if you had passed weary hours tossing and tumbling about in bemoaning
your hard luck and picturing to yourself what might have been if you had
done so and so. All rot. Let the other fellow do the worrying. Remember,
my boy, the past is irreclaimable, the present the life we are
struggling in, and the future what we make it, or rather try to make
it."

"Handy, I had no idea you were such a philosopher!"

"Indeed! Well, experience teaches me to be practical," replied the
veteran, "and I trust I may be able to prove to you the truth of what I
say. As I told you, I retired to my bed to sleep, and sleep I did, as
soundly as if I owned one-half the town and had a mortgage on the other
half. Next morning I got up refreshed and with a good appetite for
breakfast. After the morning's meal I settled myself down to the
enjoyment of a cigar. At that stage of the game I could not afford to be
seen smoking a pipe. Never give your poverty away to the world unless
you can make final disposition of it. Then came the real task--the
crisis."

"The tug of war, eh?"

"Just so. The tug of war, so to speak. I braced the landlord! I invited
him to take a chair beside me and began the siege."

"Commenced operations. Fire away."

"I had already made a study of the man, and had well considered my plan
of attack. I opened by telling him frankly I was in trouble. The week's
business had been bad, receipts next door to nothing, my share slim. To
make a long story short, I confessed I could no