It was not only breakfast we lacked. The day before we had had only
a crust together. Two days without food is not good preparation
for a day's canvassing. We did the best we could. Bob stood by and
wagged his tail persuasively while I did the talking; but luck was
dead against us, and "Hard Times" stuck to us for all we tried.
Evening came and found us down by the Cooper Institute, with
never a cent. Faint with hunger, I sat down on the steps under the
illuminated clock, while Bob stretched himself at my feet. He had
beguiled the cook in one of the last houses we called at, and his
stomach was filled. From the corner I had looked on enviously. For
me there was no supper, as there had been no dinner and no breakfast.
Tomorrow there was another day of starvation. How long was this to
last? Was it any use to keep up a struggle so hopeless? From this
very spot I had gone, hungry and wrathful, three years before when
the dining Frenchmen for whom I wanted to fight thrust me forth
from their company. Three wasted years! Then I had one cent in my
pocket, I remembered.
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