Read The Trail of 98 for Free Online

as long as I remainedfriendless and unknown nothing but degraded toil was open to
me. Surely I could climb up, but was it worth while? A snug farm in the
Northwest awaited me. I would work my way back there, and arrive decently clad.
Then none would know of my humiliation. I had been wayward and foolish, but I
had learned something.
    The men who toiled, endured and suffered were kind and helpful, their masters
mean and rapacious. Everywhere was the same sordid grasping for the dollar. With
my ideals and training nothing but discouragement and defeat would be my
portion. Oh, it is so easy to drift!
    I was sick of the whole business.
    ----

CHAPTER X
    What with steamer fare and a few small debts to settle, I found when I landed
in San Francisco that once more I was flatly broke. I was arrestively seedy,
literally on my uppers, for owing to my long tramp my boots were barely holding
together. There was no letter for me, and perhaps it was on account of my
disappointment, perhaps on account of my extreme shabbiness, but I found I had
quite lost heart. Looking as I did, I would not ask any one for work. So I
tightened my belt and sat in Portsmouth Square, cursing myself for the many
nickels I had squandered in riotous living.
    Two days later I was still drawing in my belt. All I had eaten was one meal,
which I had earned by peeling half a sack of potatoes for a restaurant. I slept
beneath the floor of an empty house out the Presidio way.
    On this day I was drowsing on my bench when some one addressed me.
    "Say, young fellow, you look pretty well used up."
    I saw an elderly, grey-haired man.
    "Oh no!" I said, "I'm not. That's just my acting. I'm a millionaire in
disguise, studying sociology."
    He came and sat by me.
    "Come, buck up, kid,
you're pretty near down and out. I've been studyin' you them two days."
    "Two days," I echoed drearily. "It seems like two years." Then, with sudden
fierceness:
    "Sir, I am a stranger to you. Never in my life before have I tried to borrow
money. It is asking a great deal of you to trust me, but it will be a most
Christian act. I am starving. If you have ten cents that isn't working lend it
to me for the love of God. I'll pay you back if it takes me ten years."
    "All right, son," he said cheerfully; "let's go and feed."
    He took me to a restaurant where he ordered a dinner that made my head swim.
I felt near to fainting, but after I had had some brandy, I was able to go on
with the business of eating. By the time I got to the coffee I was as much
excited by the food as if I had been drinking wine. I now took an opportunity to
regard my benefactor.
    He was rather under medium height, but so square and solid you felt he was a
man to be reckoned with. His skin was as brown as an Indian's, his eyes
light-blue and brightly cheerful, as from some inner light. His mouth was firm
and his chin resolute. Altogether his face was a curious blend of benevolence
and ruthless determination.
    Now he was regarding me in a manner entirely benevolent.
    "Feel better, son? Well, go ahead an' tell me as much of your story as you
want to."
    I gave an account of
all that had happened to me since I had set foot on the new land.
    "Huh!" he ejaculated when I had finished. "That's the worst of your
old-country boys. You haven't got the get-up an' nerve to rustle a job. You go
to a boss an' tell him: 'You've no experience, but you'll do your best.' An
American boy says: 'I can do anything. Give me the job an' I'll just show you.'
Who's goin' to be hired? Well, I think I can get you a job helpin' a gardener
out Alameda way."
    I expressed my gratitude.
    "That's all right," he said; "I'm glad by the grace of God I've been the
means of givin' you a hand-up. Better come to my room an' stop with me till
somethin' turns up. I'm goin' North in three days."
    I asked if he was going to the Yukon.
    "Yes, I'm goin' to join this crazy rush to the Klondike. I've been minin' for
twenty years, Arizona,