An Experiment in Misery in a story similar to "The Men in the Storm" except that it focuses on one character, and a new fellow traveler called the Assassin, who struggle for warmth and a place for the night. The main character stops first at a saloon for free soup with a beer, where he meets the Assassin. The Assassin accosts the man seeking a few cents for a room. They join forces with the Assassin identifying the place cheap enough for the other man to stay in, and the man gives him the few cents he needs for the room. The next morning the man fronts him a few cents for breakfast and they have it together. They go to a park bench to wait while others work. They get ready in their discouraged way for another round of the same that night.