He laughed , and answered readily , -- `` While we wait for Kate and the children , I 'll tell you a little adventure of mine . It may be useful to you some day . `` Fifteen years ago , on a Sunday morning like this , I stood at the window of a fireless , shabby little room , without one cent in my pocket , and no prospect of getting one . `` I had gone supperless to bed , and spent the long night asking , ` What shall I do ? ' and , receiving no reply but that which is so hard for eager youth to accept , ` Wait and trust . ' `` I was alone in the world , with no fortune but my own talent , and even that I was beginning to doubt , because it brought no money . For a year I had worked and hoped , with a brave spirit ; had written my life into poems and tales ; tried a play ; turned critic and reviewed books ; offered my pen and time to any one who would employ them , and now was ready for the hardest literary work , and the poorest pay , for starvation stared me in the face . `` All my ventures failed , and my paper boats freighted with so many high hopes , went down one after another , leaving me to despair . The last wreck lay on my table then , -- a novel , worn with much journeying to and fro , on which I had staked my last chance , and lost it . `` As I stood there at my window , cold and hungry , solitary and despairing , I said to myself , in a desperate mood , -- '' ` It is all a mistake ; I have no talent , and there is no room in the world for me , so the quicker I get out of it the better . ' `` Just then a little chap came from a gate opposite , with a shovel on his shoulder , and trudged away , whistling shrilly , to look for a job . I watched him out of sight , thinking bitterly , -- '' ` Now look at the injustice of it ! Here am I , a young man full of brains , starving because no one will give me a chance ; and there is that ignorant little fellow making a living with an old shovel ! ' '' A voice seemed to answer me , saying , -- '' ` Why do n't you do the same ? If brains do n't pay , try muscles , and thank God that you have health . ' `` Of course it was only my own pluck and common sense ; but I declare to you I was as much struck by the new idea as if a strange voice had actually spoken ; and I answered , heartily , -- '' ` As I live I will try it ! and not give up while there is any honest work for these hands to do . ' `` With sudden energy I put on my shabbiest clothes , -- and they were very shabby , of course , added an old cap and rough comforter , as disguise , and stole down to the shed where I had seen a shovel . It was early , and the house was very quiet , for the other lodgers were hard workers all the week , and took their rest Sunday morning . `` Unseen by the sleepy girl making her fires , I got the shovel and stole away by the back gate , feeling like a boy out on a frolic .
It was bitter cold , and a heavy snow-storm had raged all XXXXX .
Kate cent comforter day fro lodgers morning night starvation year