Page:Ned Wilding's Disappearance.djvu/192

182 the ship. Fearing to go home, because he thought he might be arrested for leaving the vessel, he tried to find work. He did manage to get odd jobs here and there, and finally drifted to New York.

He found it was just as hard to earn a dollar there as it had been in Boston. He could barely get enough to buy himself food and he often went hungry. Finally he managed to get a permanent position, but he earned so little that he could only just live on it. He had slept in lodging houses, he said, and wore the poorest clothing he could buy.

"I was ashamed to go home without money," he went on, "or I would have gone back long ago. I wanted to return with good clothes and gold jingling in my pocket, as I had read, in books, of boys doing. So I didn't even write to let them know where I was. Poor mother!" and William sighed.

"I lost my position a month ago. Since then I have only managed to earn enough to live, and it was hard work at times. I hadn't had anything to eat all day yesterday," he went on, "and I was cold and weak. I was on my way to the river, thinking I could find a place on the wharves to sleep, when I stumbled and fell into the snowbank.