A night-hawk cab rattled over the brick pavement, and a drunkard yelled
beneath the window; still Dick held his place. So still that a little
mouse that lived in one corner of the office, crept stealthily out,
and glancing curiously with his bead-like eyes, at the motionless
figure, ran, with many a pause, to the very legs of Dick's chair.
Crash--as Dick's feet struck the floor. The shaky old piece of furniture
almost fell in ruins and the poor frightened mouse fled to cover.
Kicking the chair to one side, the young fellow walked to the window
and stood with his hands in his pockets, looking into the night. Then,
in sullen tones, he addressed the lamp that twinkled in the bakery
across the way: "I'm a fool. I know I'm a fool; a great big fool. I
ought to have told her who I was. I ought to get out a poster and label
myself _dangerous_, so people would know they were talking to a tramp.
Oh, but when she finds out, as she must--and her father--." Here Dick's
imagination failed him, and he laughed again and again in spite of
himself, as he thought of the tramp who had applied to Adam Goodrich
for work, chatting with his beautiful daughter as an equal. "Whew--but
there'll be a hot time in the camp of the enemy when they learn the
truth," and he took himself off to bed.
CHAPTER IX
The opinions on the part of Rev. Cameron's flock regarding the proposed
reading room, were numerous and varied. Adam Goodrich, in his usual
pompous manner, gave it as his judgment that Cameron would be running
a free lodging house next, as though that were the greatest depth of
infamy to which a poor preacher could sink, and Mrs.
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