details. He was prepared to hand in a fuller and better page than he
had ever handed in before. He was in as elated a frame of mind as a
young man can be when he is used up with tramping the streets, and
running after street-cars, to stand up in them and hang by a strap.
He had been wearing a new pair of boots, one of which rubbed his heel
and had ended by raising a blister worthy of attention. To reach the
nearest "L" station he must walk across town, through several
deserted streets in the first stages of being built up, their vacant
lots surrounded by high board fencing covered with huge advertising
posters. The hall bedroom, with the gas turned up and the cheap, red-
cotton comfort on the bed, made an alluring picture as he faced the
sleety wind.

"If I cut across to the avenue and catch the 'L,' I'm bound to get
there sometime, anyhow," he said as he braced himself and set out on
his way.

The blister on his heel had given him a good deal of trouble, and he
was obliged to stop a moment to ease it, and he limped when he began
to walk again. But he limped as fast as he could, while the sleety
rain beat in his face, across one street, down another for a block or
so, across another, the melting snow soaking even the new boots as he
splashed through it. He bent his head, however, and limped steadily.
At this end of the city many of the streets were only scantily built
up, and he was passing through one at the corner of which was a big
vacant lot. At the other corner a row of cheap houses which had only
reached their second story waited among piles of bricks and frozen
mortar for the return of the workmen the blizzard had dispersed. It
was a desolate-enough thoroughfare, and not a soul was in sight. The
vacant lot was fenced in with high boarding plastered over with