07.02.12. New Year

12. NEW YEAR

It was the last night of the old year and bitter cold when Todd, riding on the top of a passenger train rolled into a city of the middle west. He climbed down as soon as the train stoppedand seeing a policeman coming toward him, darted through the crowd and ran down the street. As soon as he was safe he began to look for a place to spend the night. He entered a depot only to have a policeman order him out. It was nearing eleven o’clock and the wind was blowing a gale from the north, the streets were thronged with a merry crowd out to watch the passing of the old year and the coming of the new. But there was no gladness in Todd’s heart. He was broke, cold and hungry and he knew if he did not find a place to sleep he would freeze. He had no money; in fact the only thing he had left was a stick pin which had been a gift and which he had tried to keep, but now he had to choose between the pin and his life. Making his way into a cheap hotel he gave it to the proprietor in exchange for permission to sleep on a cot. He went to sleep a little before midnight and awoke on New Year’s morning to find that during the night he had been paralyzed, that his face was all twisted out of shape, that many words he was unable to speak, that eating and drinking had become difficult and his entire left side felt as if it were asleep. Making his way down the street he met a man who asked him for enough money to buy his breakfast, and when Todd told the man that he too was broke and had had no breakfast, the man handed him a half dollar and said, "Go on kid and get you something to eat, and I’ll get it back out of the next fellow." After getting something to eat, he started out of the city, partially paralyzed in body and with a heart that was almost paralyzed with fear as to what might be the outcome of his condition.