hen he thought of the blue box he sighed.

"Perhaps it will never come to light," he told himself. "Well, if it
does not I'll have to make the best of it."

Two o'clock found him on the streets of Riverside, which was a town of
fair size. During the summer months many visitors were in the place and
the hotels and boarding houses were crowded.

There was one very fine clothing store in Riverside, but Joe did not
deem it best, with his limited capital, to go there for a suit. Instead
he sought out a modest establishment on one of the side streets.

Just ahead of him was an Irish couple who had evidently not been in this
country many years. The man entered the store awkwardly, as if he did
not feel at home. Not so his wife, who walked a little in advance of her
husband.

"Have you got any men's coats?" said she to the clerk who came forward
to wait on the pair. "If I can get one cheap for me husband here I'll
buy one."

"Oh, yes, madam," was the ready reply. "We have the best stock in town,
by all odds. You can't fail to be suited."

So saying, he led the way to a counter piled high with the articles
called for, and hauled them over.

"There," said he, pulling out one of a decidedly ugly pattern. "There
is one of first quality cloth. It was made for a gentleman of this town,
but did not exactly fit him, and so we'll sell it cheap."

"And what is the price?"

"Three dollars."

"Three dollars!" exclaimed the Irish lady, lifting up her hands in
extreme astonishment.

"Three dollars! You'll be afther thinkin' we're made of money, sure!
I'll give you a dollar and a half."

"No, ma'am, we don't trade in that way. We don't very often take half
what we ask for an article."

"Mike," said she, "pull off yer coat an' thry it on. Three dollars, and
it looks as if it was all cotton."

"Not a thread of cotton in that," was the clerk's reply.

"Not wan, but a good many, I'm thinkin'," retorted the Irish lady, as
she helped her husband draw on the coat. It fitted tolerably well and
Mike seemed mightily pleased with his transformation.

"Come," said the wife. "What will ye take?"

"As it's you, I'll take off twenty-five cents," replied the clerk.

"And sell it to me for two dollars?" inquired his customer, who had good
cause for her inaccurate arithmetic.

"For two dollars and seventy-five cents."

"Two dollars and seventy-five cents! It's taking the bread out of the
childer's mouths you'd have us, paying such a