oney and I was hungry."

"How long have you been hungry?"

"I have not had anything to eat for almost three days."

"There is food to be had at the Poor Commissioners. Did you know that
fact?"

The man did not answer, and Philip asked him again. The reply came in a
tone of bitter emphasis that made the minister start:

"Yes, I knew it! I would strave[sic] before I would go to the Poor
Commissioners for food."

"Or steal?" asked Philip, gently.

"Yes, or steal. Wouldn't you?"

Philip stared out into the darkness of the court and answered honestly:
"I don't know."

There was a short pause. Then he asked:

"Can't you get work?"

It was a hopeless question to put to a man in a town of over two
thousand idle men. The answer was what he knew it would be:

"Work! Can I pick up a bushel of gold in the street out there? Can a man
get work where there ain't any?"

"What have you been doing?"

"I was fireman in the Lake Mills. Good job. Lost it when they closed
down last winter."

"What have you been doing since?"

"Anything I could get."

"Are you a married man?"

The question affected the other strangely. He trembled all over, put his
head between his knees, and out of his heart's anguish flowed the words,
"I had a wife. She's dead--of consumption. I had a little girl. She's
dead, too. Thank God!" exclaimed the man, with a change from a sob to a
curse. "Thank God!--and curses on all rich men who had it in their power
to prevent the hell on earth for other people, and which they will feel
for themselves in the other world!"

Philip did not say anything for some time. What could any man say to
another at once under such circumstances? Finally he said:

"What will you do with money if I give you some?"

"I don't want your money," replied the man.

"I thought you did a little while ago."

"It was the mill-owner's money I wanted. You're the preacher, ain't you
up at Calvary Church?"

"Yes. How did you know?"

"I've seen you. Heard you preach once. I never thought I should come to
this--holding up a preacher down here!" And the man laughed a hard,
short laugh.

"Then you're not----" Philip hardly knew how to say it. He wanted to say
that the man was not connected in any way with the saloon element;
"you're driven to this desperate course on your own account? The reason
I ask is because I have been threatened by the whiskey men, and at first
I supposed you were one of their men."

"No, sir," was th