“Only forty cents to begin life with in a great city!”

“Yes, sir; I have paid my board in advance for a week.”

“Where do you board?”

“In Stanton Street.”

Tom turned up his nose at the name of this street, which he knew was very far from fashionable, but this demonstration our hero did not observe.

“What board do you pay?”

“Three dollars a week, sir.”

“A poor place, probably.”

“Yes, sir, but I could afford no better.”

“You are sensible to accommodate yourself to circumstances. Well, my young friend, it appears that you can't wait long for employment. Mr. Carroll has asked me to do something for you, and I am disposed to oblige him, not wholly for his sake, but partly for your own, for you seem to me a very modest and sensible boy. Mr. Pratt, do we need another boy?”