The Herald Building was a decrepit frame structure on Main Street; it had once been a small warehouse and was now sadly in need of paint.

Closely adjoining it, in a large, blank-looking yard, stood a low brick cottage, over which the second story of the warehouse leaned in an effect of tipsy affection that had reminded Harkless, when he first saw it, of an old Sunday-school book wood-cut of an inebriated parent under convoy of a devoted child.

The title to these two buildings and the blank yard had been included in the purchase of the "Herald"; and the cottage was Harkless's home.
There was a light burning upstairs in the "Herald" office.

From the street a broad, tumble-down stairway ran up on the outside of the building to the second floor, and at the stairway railing John turned and shook his companion warmly by the hand.
"Good-night, William," he said.

"It was plucky of you to join in that muss, to-night.