Mr. Neal learned he was a hard-working teamster. The man seemed
pleased with his lodger's attentions, and invited him to come again, and
Mr. Neal did come again and often, for he liked his landlord from the
start. There were three children, two of them pictures of health, but
the third thin and pale and unable to romp about because of a twisted
leg.
Mr. Neal became a veritable member of the household, and when he
discovered from a chance remark of the father that they were saving
money, penny by penny, to buy a brace for the crooked leg, he insisted
on "loaning" the money to make up the balance still lacking.
"Funny thing," commented the teamster one evening. "We used to think you
wasn't human exactly." He laughed heartily. "Gotta get acquainted with a
guy, ain't you?"
Then his wife, a thin, washed-out little woman, embarrassed the little
clerk greatly by saying gravely:
"Mr. Neal, you're a good man."
Her eyes were on the little cripple.
In the same vein was the comment of the office force at Fields, Jones &
Houseman's on the occasion of Arnold's injury in the elevator accident,
when Mr. Neal took up a collection for the injured man, heading the
subscription himself.
"Funny thing," exclaimed the chief clerk to a stenographer as they were
leaving the office that afternoon.
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