Sudden Jim

te of Michigan that not even a local poet had ventured to call lovely. It was flat as an exhausted purse-indeed, it was an exhausted pur

from Norway, nor the difference between the Doyle and Scribner scales, was getting its names

ould be a boon from heaven. But there was neither drummer nor cards. He was not the sort of person who could sit and think, and when tired of that omit the thinking and just sit. So he brooded. Long before he reached Diversity he was terribly sorry for himself, which, after all

ce the weight of the baggage-master, who was also telegraph-operator, station-agent, porter, and information bureau. The next thing he saw was a jumble of form and color that would have made immortal a cubist who could have

currilously. The progeny consisted of coal-sheds, warehouses, nondescript buildings where nothing was or apparently ever had been done, a feed-mill and a water-tank. All of them see

o meet him, for no one knew he was coming. He didn't know where to go and didn't much care. All directions seemed equally unpromisi

oke hunger. In spite of his own discomfort Jim was interested, and there can be no doubt he stared. He stared long enough to observe that the young woman was dark, with a heap of curling hair

did impress him as a young person who might find d

are. In a second she comprehended he was staring, and she flashed resentment at him. She even bit her l

o the platform sat an old man with square white whiskers. Possibly "sat" is not the precise word to use, for the old man rested mainly on the ba

ve me to the h

nees, his belt-buckle, his cravat, finally into his ey

lines. "Giddap, Tiffany," he said, wholly oblivious to Jim

spouting smoke and flames. Behind Jim the fat station-agent laughed twice, thus: "Heh! Heh!" which was all he could mana

who lent the support of his back to a post on the piazza and snored feebly. Jim went in. The office was deserted. He coughed. In another month Jim knew how useless it was to seek to attract attention in that hotel by coughing, indeed by anything short of exploding dynamite on the floor. Next h

he window, feeling of his ear as though it had be

!" exclaimed the

proprietor?"

more. "Who? Me? Ho! Don't

is he

. Seems though he might be over t' t

till he comes back b

mostly they go up and pic

tly and placed his

where the new mil

eep right a-goin' and you

ted out to inspect the plant of

keep under the shade of the fine big maples which bordered it. Nobody could blame it. In fact, Jim thought it showed extraordinary intelligen

nished. Heat-waves radiated from their composition roofs, and as for their corrugated-iron sides, Jim fancied their ugly red was not due so much to paint as to the fact that they were red-hot. Everywhere were men hurrying

ree and wished his father had chosen some other calling than the manufacture of clothespins. He mopped his head and wrinkled his nose, and grew ver

n on to his property, acting very much like a ma

ggest building he encountered a small

here's the office?

es lighted; whit

? Sure. I take

bare feet seemed miraculously to take

Me carry da drink." Then he pointed to a s

desk was littered with papers and letters. Jim sat down in a revolving-chair to wait for the return of Mr. Wattrous,

ted collar, and a leather do

. "White's my name. Fire-proof paint. Jenkins was sick, so I ca

s. 'Tain't right we should. But here's what we will do: We'll stand seven and a half and we'll just add seven and a half to the face of

," Jim said, "bu

ughed, as at

eers has got to

price would you be making us if the

figure twenty per cent. off

Wattrous had added twenty per cent. to costs all the wa

. K. the

eavy-set man in corduroys and laced boots who entered with a roll of d

s at home," he

he felt a sort of humorous interest. The situation was not without its ludicrous appeal. "

aw dropped and he stared at Jim and then at Wattrous with the

out commissions would astonish you. Why, he's going to g

his jaw. "Who the de

es Ashe. I'm the fello

the office at a speed that threatened further to wreck his already lamentably wilted collar. Jim turned sharply to Wattrous. He felt unlike himself;

is volition. It seemed to do so of its own accord, and Jim was conscious of mild surpri

s way out of his unpleasant predicament; the other was to make matters worse by the application of

" he

ant, then swung on his hee

it." Then he leaned back in his chair and gazed at the ceiling, reviewing the last few moments. He had mad

d of man I am?"

s of his new property, but he had not merged into it unless one can say that a hammer thrown through a glass window merges into it. He had expected to enter his work

t planned. They must be replaced, and Jim himself had not the technical knowledge to fill the la

ser Boss!"

here right along," sa

ear you fire Miss

I have your

what approval was. "I tell Italian mans. Dey laugh. Yo

the next boss-who else

e boss. Work wit' da

membered, was the head millwright in

w. You

emerged from the door. His overalls were covered with grease and sawdust, a rule

Nelson," y

son!" ca

ikable face, a face, if the steel-blue eyes were to be believed, which belonged to a man whose action

Ashe. My father has gone to Cali

on extended his hand with a

know you,

got to take charge in his place. Can

es

boss. What are

ollars

hirty-five dollars a week. Wh

us figured

hree. Put on more men if necessa

his machine sat so, why another machine must be driven from counter-shafting. He told him about the

eneral pl

it were my

run right. I'm going back to the office

. Was this Jim Ashe-the same Jim Ashe who got off the train at Diversity an hour

a personal inventory,

sting-engine. It was six o'clock. He put on his coat and walked

son," he hear

at pleased him most, because it was unexpected, because it would have pleased m

n' to Nelson. He'l

other voice, apparen

Jim-Clothespi

his heart; his first half-day had been good. It had