"I have had a bully sleep."
"And you feel ready for breakfast?"
"I think I can eat some."
The two new acquaintances dressed and went down stairs. Ben was about to take his bundle, but the reporter stopped him.
"Leave it here," he said, "for the present. Blodgett won't be back for three or four days, and you can stay here till he returns. You won't want to be lugging that bundle all over town."
"You are very kind," said Ben, gratefully.
"Why shouldn't I be? I came to the city myself a poor country youth, and I had a hard struggle as first till I reached my present pinnacle of wealth," he concluded, with a smile.
"Are reporters well paid?" asked Ben, innocently.
"That depends! Whatever they earn, it is seldom that one gets fifty dollars ahead. That is because, as a rule, they are improvident, and sometimes dissipated. I am not as well paid as some, but I make a little writing sketches for the weekly story papers. I pick up two or three hundred a year that way. Then I take better care of my money than some. I laid up five hundred dollars last year, and nearly as much the year before."
"You will soon be rich," said Ben, to whom five hundred dollars seemed a large sum of money.