This training, though it lasted only a few months, was very valuable to me.

But how to get a job--that was the question.

I tramped the streets for days and weeks, asking merchants and storekeepers if they didn't want a boy; but the offer of my services met with little appreciation.

No one wanted a boy, and very few showed any overwhelming anxiety to talk with me on the subject.

At last one man on the Cleveland docks told me that I might come back after the noonday meal.