The quote signifies how the earth judges things not with the one’s actions or way of life. By the author saying ”. . .my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter.”, it shows that the society doesn’t worship for peoples kindness or pacience but they look at eachother in a different point of view. In the story, the clerk loses his job only because he was trying to be kind to the three girls in the store.