you spoke of -- I want to help. I have been through all
that."

"Where do you live?" asked the other.

"I have no home," said Jurgis, "I am out of work."

"You are a foreigner, are you not?"

"Lithuanian, sir."

The man thought for a moment, and then turned to his
friend. "Who is there, Walters?" he asked. "There
is Ostrinski -- but he is a Pole--"

"Ostrinski speaks Lithuanian," said the other.

"All right, then; would you mind seeing if he has gone
yet?"

The other started away, and the speaker looked at Jur~
gis again. He had deep, black eyes, and a face full of
gentleness and pain. "You must excuse me, comrade,"
he said. "I am just tired out -- I have spoken every
day for the last month. I will introduce you to someone
who will be able to help you as well as I could--"

The messenger had had to go no further than the door;
he came back, followed by a man whom he introduced to
Jurgis as "Comrade Ostrinski." Comrade Ostrinski was
a little man, scarcely up to Jurgis's shoulder, wizened and
wrinkled, very ugly, and slightly lame. He had on a
long-tailed black coat, worn green at the seams and the
buttonholes; his eyes must have been weak, for he wore
green spectacles, that gave him a grotesque appearance.
But his hand clasp was hearty, and he spoke in Lithuanian,
which warmed Jurgis to him.

"You want to know about Socialism?" he said.
"Surely. Let us go out and take a stroll, where we can
be quiet and talk some."

And so Jurgis bade farewell to the master wizard, and
went out. Ostrinski asked where he lived, offering to
walk in that direction; and so he had to explain once
more that he was without a home. At the other's request
he told his story; how he had come to America, and what
had happened to him in the stockyards, and how his family
had been broken up, and how he had become a wanderer.
So much the little man heard, and then he pressed Jurgis's

[[371]]

p370 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p371w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p372

v?