whiffs of the foul atmosphere into their lungs, which had heretofore
only been accustomed to breathing the pure air of the prairie, "in what
sort of an inferno have we landed?" And then he held the candle high,
and by its unsteady, sickly-yellow light he counted five bunks, one
above the other, in the tier they were to sleep, built from the floor
right up to the ceiling, with only sufficient space intervening for a
human being to crawl into. These vertical tiers of bunks looked for all
the world like boarded up book shelves in a library, one adjoining the
other as far as their eyes could penetrate the darkness of the hall,
and in each and every bunk was a snoring human wretch, while the
suffocating atmosphere caused by the overcrowding and the insufficient
ventilation, which was greatly enhanced by the heat of the summer, made
the "Golden Rule Hotel" an absolutely unfit place for human habitation.

"Let's get out of this horrid place, even if we have to sleep upon the
chairs down below in the office," whispered Jim; but before he could add
another word or make a move to leave the hall, a threatening voice,
emanating from the tier of bunks in the darkness behind them, whose
owner had evidently been disturbed by their conversation, roughly
commanded them to "hush up and blow out the candle."

Unused to the ways of the city, the frightened boys obeyed the command,
and after they had undressed in the darkness, they climbed into the
bunks and being tired out by their sight-seeing, they were soon asleep.

In the early morning, after they had made their toilets by an open
faucet to which a cake of perforated laundry soap had been chained, they
descended to the office and there demanded of the manager the return of
the money they had paid for their week's lodging, less the cost of the
lodging of the preceding night, but this worthy not only absolutely
refused to refund a single cent, but derided them so for being "Reubens"
that they decided to stop, just for spite, at the "Golden Rule Hotel"
until they received their money's worth.

After a hasty breakfast, they copied from the want columns of the
Minneapolis Tribune, the best paper in the city, the addresses of those
who had inserted advertisements which the twins thought would suit them,
and set out to search for a job, that they had long ago planned should
form the first stepping stone towards the fortune and the fame they had
resolved to gather in the city.

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