some distance back, that her application was to be made there.
Turning quickly from the rude and too familiar gaze of the
attendant, the young woman went on to the desk and stood, half
frightened and trembling, beside the man from whom she had come to
ask the privilege of toiling for little more than a crust of bread
and a cup of cold water.

"Have you any work, sir?" was repeated in a still lower and more
timid voice than that in which her request had at first been made.

"Yes, we have," was the gruff reply.

"Can I get some?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure that you'll ever bring it back again."

The applicant endeavored to make some reply to this, but the words
choked her; she could not utter them.

"I've been tricked in my time out of more than a little by
new-comers. But I don't know; you seem to have a simple, honest
look. Are you particularly in want of work?"

"Oh yes, sir!" replied the applicant, in an earnest, half-imploring
voice. "I desire work very much."

"What kind do you want?"

"Almost any thing you have to give out, sir?"