“Yes, sir.”

“It’s hard work. You’ll have to clean floors and wash spittoons and fill lamps and handle trunks⁠—”

“I’m willing, sir.”

“All right. I’ll pay you thirty a month and board, and you can begin now, if you feel like it. You can put on the other fellow’s rig.”

And so Jurgis fell to work, and toiled like a Trojan till night. Then he went and told Elzbieta, and also, late as it was, he paid a visit to Ostrinski to let him know of his good fortune. Here he received a great surprise, for when he was describing the location of the hotel Ostrinski interrupted suddenly, “Not Hinds’s!”

“Yes,” said Jurgis, “that’s the name.”

To which the other replied, “Then you’ve got the best boss in Chicago⁠—he’s a state organizer of our party, and one of our best-known speakers!”