t a desk
some distance back, that her application was to be made there.
Turning quickly from the rude and too familiar gaze of the
attendant, the young woman went on to the desk and stood, half
frightened and trembling, beside the man from whom she had come to
ask the privilege of toiling for little more than a crust of bread
and a cup of cold water.

"Have you any work, sir?" was repeated in a still lower and more
timid voice than that in which her request had at first been made.

"Yes, we have," was the gruff reply.

"Can I get some?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure that you'll ever bring it back again."

The applicant endeavored to make some reply to this, but the words
choked her; she could not utter them.

"I've been tricked in my time out of more than a little by
new-comers. But I don't know; you seem to have a simple, honest
look. Are you particularly in want of work?"

"Oh yes, sir!" replied the applicant, in an earnest, half-imploring
voice. "I desire work very much."

"What kind do you want?"

"Almost any thing you have to give out, sir?"

"Well, we have pants, coarse and fine roundabouts, shirts, drawers,
and almost any article of men's wear you can mention."

"What do you give for shirts, sir?"

"Various prices; from six cents up to twenty-five, according to the
quality of the article."

"_Only_ twenty-five cents for fine shirts!" returned the young
woman, in a surprised, disappointed, desponding tone.

"_Only_ twenty-five cents? _Only_? Yes, _only_ twenty-five cents!
Pray how much did you expect to get, Miss?" retorted the clothier,
in a half-sneering, half-offended voice.

"I don't know. But twenty-five cents is very little for a hard day's
work."

"Is it, indeed? I know enough who are thankful even for that. Enough
who are at it early and late, and do not even earn as much. Your
ideas will have to come down a little, Miss, if you expect to work
for this branch of business."

"What do you give for vests and pantaloons?" asked the young woman,
without seeming to notice the man's rudeness.

"For common trowsers with pockets, twelve cents; and for finer ones,
fifteen and twenty cents. Vests about the same rates."

"Have you any shirts ready?"

"Yes, a plenty. Will you have em coarse or fine?"

"Fine, if you please."

"How many will you take?"

"Let me have three to begin with."

"Here, Michael," cried the man to the attendant who had been first
addressed by the stranger, "give t