newcomer sallied forth in quest of work, and began by expending nearly
half of his capital in improving his wardrobe. It was a wise action.
He that goes courting should dress in his best, particularly if he
courts so capricious a jade as Fortune.

Then he began the weary round of the printing offices, seeking for work
and finding none, all day long. He would enter an office and ask in
his whining note:

"Do you want a hand?"

"No," was the inevitable reply, upon receiving which he left without a
word. Mr. Greeley chuckled as he told the reception given him at the
office of the _Journal of Commerce_, a newspaper he was destined to
contend with for many a year in the columns of the _Tribune_.

"Do you want a hand?" he said to David Hale, one of the owners of the
paper.

Mr. Hale looked at him from head to foot, and then said:

"My opinion is, young man, that you're a runaway apprentice, and you'd
better go home to your master."

The applicant tried to explain, but the busy proprietor merely replied:

"Be off about your business, and don't bother us."

The young man laughed good-humouredly and resumed his walk. He went to
bed Saturday night thoroughly tired and a little discouraged. On