“Seems to me the best thing for you is to do as I did when I first broke the home pasture and started out on a rampage. I just grabbed the fust job that come along, good, bad, or indifferent—always kept doing something. You can look for a bird in the bush quite well when you’ve got one in the hand as when you hain’t. To be sure I wasn’t as squeamish as you are. I’d jumped at the offer you had this afternoon; but I reckon I’d taken toll too often to be very profitable. But in this way I always kept a-goin’—never got down underfoot so the stronger ones could tread on me. When it comes to that, I want to die. Now if you’ve got plenty of clear grit—Leetle disposed to show the white feather though, tonight, ain’t yer?”
Dennis flushed up, and was about to speak, almost angrily.
“There! there!” said his new friend. “I said yer wasn’t a cart-hoss: one touch of the spur and up goes tail and ears, and then look out. Are yer ashamed to do any kind of honest work? I mean kinder pious work, that hasn’t any smack of the devil you’re so afraid of in it?”
“No! work is just what I want.”
“Would you black boots, now?”
Dennis winced, thought a moment, and then, with a manly flush, said, “Yes, before I would take a cent of charity from any living soul.”
“Give us yer hand again. You’re the kind of critter I like to invest in; for you’d improve on a feller’s hands. No fear about you; the only thing is to get you in harness before a load that will pay to haul.”
Suddenly he got up, strode to the barroom door, looked out into the night, and came back again.
“I think I know of a way in which you can make two or three dollars tomorrow.”
“How?” exclaimed Dennis, his whole face lighting up with hope.
“Go to a hardware store, invest in a big wooden snow-shovel, and clean off sidewalks before stores. You can pick up a good many quarters before night, like enough.”
“I will do it,” said Dennis, heartily, “and thank you warmly for the suggestion, and for your kindly interest generally,” and he looked up and felt himself another man.
“Gosh! but it takes mighty few oats to set you up! But come, and let us have a little plain, substantial fodder. I will drink nothing but coffee, tonight, out of compliment to you.”
Cheered, comforted, and hopeful, Dennis sat down with his good Samaritan, and made a hearty supper, after which they parted with a strong friendly grip, and sincere good wishes, Cronk, the drover, going on further west, and Dennis to the rest he so sorely needed.
VIII
Yahcob Bunk
Before retiring, Dennis as usual took his Bible from his trunk to read a chapter. He was now in a very different mood from that of a few hours ago. The suggestion of his barroom acquaintance was a light upon his way. And with one of Dennis’s age and temperament, even a small hope is potent. He was eager for the coming day, in order to try the experiment of wringing bread and opportunity for further search out of the wintry snows.
But that which had done him the most good—more than he realized—was the kindness he had received, rough though it was—the sympathy and companionship of another human being; for if he had been cast away on a desert island he could not have been more isolated than in the great city, with its indifferent multitudes.
Moreover the generous supper was not without its decided influence; and with it he had drunk a cup of good coffee, that nectar of the gods, whose subtle, delicate influence is felt in body and brain, in every fibre of the nature not deadened and blunted by stronger and coarser stimulants. He who leaves out physical causes in accounting for mental and moral states, will usually come wide of the mark. But while giving the influences above referred to their due force, so far from ignoring, we would acknowledge with emphasis, the chief cause of man’s ability to receive and appreciate all the highest phases of truth and good, namely, God’s help asked for and given. Prayer was a habit with Dennis. He asked God with childlike faith for the bestowment of every Christian grace, and those who knew him best saw that he had no reason to complain that his prayers were unanswered.
But now, at a time when he would most appreciate it, God was about to reveal to him a truth that would be a rich source of help and comfort through life, and a sudden burst of sunshine upon his dark way at the present hour. He was to be shown how he might look to heaven for help and guidance in respect to his present and earthly interests, as truly as in his spiritual life.
As he opened his Bible his eyes caught the words of our Lord—“Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught.”
Then Peter’s answer—“Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing: nevertheless, at Thy word I will let down the net.”
The result—“They enclosed a great multitude of fishes.”
With these words light broke in upon his mind. “If our Lord,” he mused, “helped His first disciples catch fish, why should He not help me find a good place?” Then unbelief suggested, “It was not for the sake of the fish; they were only means to a higher end.”
But Dennis, who had plenty of good commonsense, at once answered this objection: “Neither do I want position and money for low, selfish purposes. My ends are the best and purest,
