English very fluently for one who has been here but a year."
"Part of my education at home was to learn something of the English language. I was kept at school until—until a short time before I left my native country. Music is my chosen profession, but it does me little good where I am unknown. I trust you will give me a trial at this work." His look was pathetic, his attitude pleading.
"Oh, I was talking entirely for your own good. We need brakemen, and I shall be glad to have the yardmaster put you to work at once, if you are determined to go at it. But you are pretty frail looking for this kind of a job. Are you always so pale as you are now? You seem———" Then, as a sudden thought came to him, he broke off quickly:
"Have you been eating regularly?"
The dark eyes of the Italian boy half closed to hide the pain in them; but he replied steadily:
"Candidly, sir, I have not."
"When did you eat last?"
"I had some crackers yesterday morning."
"And it is now four o'clock! Well, you cannot go to work this evening, then. I will send you down to Mrs. Sullivan's boarding house, and you will get a good, substantial supper. By tomorrow you will feel better, when you can come back and talk to the yardmaster and learn where you are to work."
