I knew nobody, and I had no money. Everything that a man
could live by was owned by some one or other. I walked through the
town looking for a place where they might want a boy to run errands
or to clean windows. But somehow I hadn't the cheek to go into the
shops and ask. Two or three times, when I was on the point of
trying, I caught sight of some cad of a shopman, and made up my mind
that I wouldn't be ordered about by HIM, and that since I had the
whole town to choose from I might as well go on to the next place.
At last, quite late in the afternoon, I saw an advertisement stuck
up on a gymnasium, and, while I was reading it, I got talking to old
Ned Skene, the owner, who was smoking at the door. He took a fancy
to me, and offered to have me there as a sort of lad-of-all-work. I
was only too glad to get the chance, and I closed with him at once.
As time went on I became so clever with the gloves that Ned matched
me against a light-weight named Ducket, and bet a lot of money that
I would win. Well, I couldn't disappoint him after his being so kind
to me--Mrs. Skene had made as much of me as if I was her own son.
What could I do but take my bread as it came to me? I was fit for
nothing else.
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