She invited me inside, but I asked her to
call him out for me. When he came I told him all the circumstances, and
asked him if he knew any who would take me for a boarder. Hubbard Squash
thought for a moment in a sympathetic mood, then said there was an old
couple called Hagino, living in the rear of the street, who had asked
him sometime ago to get some boarders for them as there are only two in
the house and they had some vacant rooms. Hubbard Squash was kind enough
to go along with me and find out if the rooms were vacant. They were.
From that night I boarded at the house of the Haginos. What surprised me
was that on the day after I left the house of Ikagin, Clown stepped in
and took the room I had been occupying. Well used to all sorts of tricks
and crooks as I might have been, this audacity fairly knocked me off my
feet. It was sickening.
I saw that I would be an easy mark for such people unless I brace up
and try to come up, or down, to their level. It would be a high time
indeed for me to be alive if it were settled that I would not get three
meals a day without living on the spoils of pick pockets. Nevertheless,
to hang myself,--healthy and vigorous as I am,--would be not only
inexcusable before my ancestors but a disgrace before the public.
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