went.




CHAPTER III

PITTSBURGH AND WORK


The great question now was, what could be found for me to do. I had
just completed my thirteenth year, and I fairly panted to get to work
that I might help the family to a start in the new land. The prospect
of want had become to me a frightful nightmare. My thoughts at this
period centered in the determination that we should make and save
enough of money to produce three hundred dollars a year--twenty-five
dollars monthly, which I figured was the sum required to keep us
without being dependent upon others. Every necessary thing was very
cheap in those days.

The brother of my Uncle Hogan would often ask what my parents meant to
do with me, and one day there occurred the most tragic of all scenes I
have ever witnessed. Never can I forget it. He said, with the kindest
intentions in the world, to my mother, that I was a likely boy and apt
to learn; and he believed that if a basket were fitted out for me with
knickknacks to sell, I could peddle them around the wharves and make
quite a considerable sum. I never knew what an enraged woman meant
till then. My mother was sitting sewing at the moment, but she sprang
to her feet with outstretched hands and shook them in his face.