The elders,
too, gave him "good-evening" pleasantly and smiled genially. The
children had naturally told their parents about him of his wonderful
presents, and great skill with knife and string.
"He can whittle anything you ask!"
"He knows how to make things you want!"
"He can tie a knot sixteen different kinds!"
"He can fold a newspaper into soldiers' and firemen's caps!"
"He's friends with the policeman!"
Such laudations, and a hundred more, the children sang of him to their
elders.
"Oh," cried one little four-year-old girl, voicing the unanimous feeling
of the children, "Mister Peter is just shplendid."
So the elders nodded and smiled when they met him, and he was pretty
well known to several hundred people whom he knew not.
But another year passed, and still no client came.
CHAPTER XII.
HIS FIRST CLIENT.
Peter sat in his office, one hot July day, two years after his arrival,
writing to his mother. He had but just returned to New York, after a
visit to her, which had left him rather discouraged, because, for the
first time, she had pleaded with him to abandon his attempt and return
to his native town.
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