Page:American Boy's Life of William McKinley.djvu/151

Rh to make room for the new Stark County court-house. He purchased a desk, chair, table, and a bookcase for his law volumes, and then had his sign painted and hung out close to the door.

At first there was little to do, and it looked as if the young lawyer would starve before he could earn enough with which to support himself. But he kept a stout heart and a smiling face, and this won him the friendship of several other lawyers, who began to throw odds and ends of work in his way—copying law papers, making researches, and the like. These jobs were often tedious and the pay was small, but McKinley did not complain, but performed every task promptly and to the best of his ability.

At length his pluck won the admiration of Judge Belden, then a well-known lawyer of Stark County. The judge had his offices in the same building with McKinley, and he determined one day to throw a case into the young lawyer's hands and see how he made out with it. Walking into the little back room, he found McKinley finishing up some copying.