The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1898-05-27
TINS INITIATIVE.
By WILLIAM A. LEAhY.
GT DON'T think we shall need you
aA~>>~A~A~~~~~~~~~~~~

marked to his partner: well, we'll
try him, anyway" Tim had known he
would not suit and time had only con-
firmed him in this conviction.
The lawyers were SO sharp and
quick; their errands full of strange
terms, hard to remember, and dis
patched to strange places, hard to find.
And when he was left alone in the Of
flee and other lawyers came in, all
quick and sharp, like his employers,
how confused he grew!
How he blundered at the telephone!
How he always failed to say the right
thing to the clients! How he hit upon
the utterly wrong thing to say to the
judge one day, and saw Mr.. Dodd slap
his long yellow envelope on the desk
and swing his chair around and look at
him, as much as to say: You born
dunce!"
"You don't seem to take hold as we
would like to have you," explained Mr.
Dodd, counting out two two-dollar bills,
a dollar over Tins usual weeks pay,
but the last that he was to receive from
this employer-the last, perhaps, he
was ever to receive from anybody, he
thought, as he shufiled disconsolately
down the stairs.
1T was a sad story to tell to his
mother; though, of course, being his
mother, she would be easier than any
one else.
"Well, it's too bad, Jimmie, losing
your very first place, but I suppose you
can look around for another one." .
"Oh, yes," replied Tim, choking up
at her sympathy. But when he went to
his own room and looked out of the Win
dow it really did not seem any use. 1t
was the recommendation from his
grammar school that got him this
place; but now he hadn't any recon-
mendation. And who would take dis
charged Office boy?
However, next morning he faithfully
copied all the "Boy Wanted adver-
tisements in the Sunday. paper, and on
Monday started out early to try his
luck. At noon he came home discour-
aged; at supper time he had no appe-
tite at all.
Sometimes the place had just been
taken by another boy. The Help Want
ed" column had many readers, it
seemed. Sometimes bigger boy than
Tim was wanted, and how Tim wished
he was tall Sometimes it was smaller
boy, and Tim regretted his long trou-
sers.
Sometimes the faces of the women
clerks, looking sidewise from their
desks at the candidate for Harry's or
Charley's position, froze his courage
completely. His voice sank low, and he
grew in his own esteem twice as shabby
| and humble as he really was. Then he
saw clouds of doubt gathering on the
| face of the manager or foor-walker,
and heard him conclude the eXamina-
ton with blunt "You won't do;" or
perhaps the more evasive "Well, think
We'll make other arrangements" or,
gentlest of all, but knelling with no
| less certainty the doom of his modest
applications: "Leave me your address,
so that if we should want you we shall
know where to send"
Two weeks of constant rejection
sapped Tins hope most lamentably.
He dreaded to turn an office doorknob.
He began to look upon employers as a
class apart from other men, of stern,
inquisitorial temper and disposition
that could not be pleased.
''lt's too bad we haven't some friend
who could get you place, Timmie," !"
said his mother. That was just what
Tim had been thinking himself. Nat
urally he and his mother had certain
traits in common. "But can't think
of any; SO you'll keep on trying, like a
good boy, won't your"
"oh, yes" replied Tim, "I'll keep on
trying"
But two months went by, and he
hadn't energy enough left for a real,
hearty try. To be sure, he dreamed
every night of golden strokes of for
tune, and usually started towards town
in the morning determined'to ''do some
thing, anyway" But even this vague
determination oozed away after he had
crossed his threshold, and the upshot
of every journey was random saunter
through the streets, with his hands in
his pockets and a far-away, desolate
look in his eyes.
Now and then he would stop at store
window with sudden jerk, then turn
aside after a short survey, move on to
the next corner and halt minute be-
fore he decided whether to proceed to
the right or to the left. He ran to all
the fires. He stood in line with the
crowd on the cnrbstone to watch the
procession. He idled into the reading
room of the public library; everywhere
an easily recognizable picture of irreso-
luton and failure.
One evening as Tim came home, tired
respondent and little sulky, he met
Nelly at the gate. This was no unusual
occurrence, as Nelly lived next door and
their families used the same passage.
way.
: Now Nelly was as brisk girl as ever
, swung broom, which was just her oc-
} cupation this evening. She had the
gift of making things and people go heI
J way. The babies, no matter how many
: could not override her for a minute;
and arms akimbo, with a stamp of hel
foot, she could scare the surliest Prov
ier from her yard. Moreover. like
3 Tom, she liked to talk to people, tc
: pnsh out into the world and expand hel
; knowledge and experience.
With these qualities she made an ex
0 cellent housekeeper for her father, ant
although barely 16, assumed capably
! The place of the mother who was gone
Her sleeves were rolled up to the ell