Had there been a lantern nearby, as there should have been, Hiram
would have taken it to search for the lost card. For he felt
suddenly as though Opportunity had brushed past him.

The man in the carriage evidently lived out of town. He might be
a prosperous farmer. And, being a farmer, he might be able to
give Hiram just the sort of job he was looking for.

The card, of course, would have put Hiram in touch with the man.
And he seemed like a hearty, good-natured individual.

"And the girl--his daughter--was as pretty as a picture," thought
Hiram, as he turned wearily toward the boarding house. "Well!
I don't know that I'll ever see either of them again; but if I
could learn that man's name and address I'd certainly look him
up."

So much did this thought disturb him that he was up an hour
earlier than usual the next morning and hurried to work by the
way of the excavation in the street where the incident had
occurred.

But he could not find the card, although he got down into the
ditch to search for it. The loose sand, perhaps, rattling down
from the sides of the excavation during the night, had buried the
bit of pasteboard, and Hiram went on to Dwight's Emporium more
disheartened than ever.

The work there went worse that morning. Old Daniel Dwight drove
the young fellow from one task to another. The other clerks got