lise to any hotel you'd have had to ask where
it was."

"So I should," Frank admitted.

"I'll show you round a little, if you want me to," said Dick. "I shan't
have anything to do for an hour or two."

"I wish you would."

So the two boys walked about in the lower part of the city, Dick
pointing out hotels, public buildings, and prominent streets. Frank had
a retentive memory, and stored away the information carefully. Penniless
as he was, he was excited and exhilarated by the scene of activity in
which he was moving, and was glad he was going to live in it, or to
attempt doing so.

"When I am used to it I shall like it much better than the country," he
said to Dick. "Don't you?"

"I don't know about that," was the reply. "Sometimes I think I'll go
West;--a lot of boys that I know have gone there."

"Won't it take a good deal of money to go?" asked Frank.

"Oh, there's a society that pays boys' expenses, and finds 'em nice
homes with the farmers. Tom Harrison, one of my friends, went out six
weeks ago, and he writes me that it's bully. He's gone to some town in
Kansas."

"That's a good way off."

"I wouldn't mind that. I'd like ridin' in the cars."

"It would be something new to you; but I've lived in the country all my
life, I'd rather stay here awhile."

"It's just the way a feller feels," said Dick philosophically. "I've
bummed around so much I'd like a good, stiddy home, with three square
meals a day and a good bed to sleep on."

"Can't you get that here?" asked Frank.

"Not stiddy. Sometimes I don't get but one square meal a day."

Frank became thoughtful. Life in the city seemed more precarious and
less desirable than he anticipated.

"Well, I must go to work again," said Dick, after a while.

"Where are you going to sleep to-night?" asked Frank.

"I don't know whether I'd better sleep at the Astor House or Fifth
avenue," said Dick.

Frank looked perplexed.

"You don't mean that, do you?" he asked.

"Of course I don't. You're too fresh. Don't get mad," he continued
good-naturedly, seeing the flush on Frank's cheek. "You'll know as much
about the city as I do before long. I shall go to the Newsboys' Lodgin'
House, where I can sleep for six cents."

"I wish I had six cents," said Frank. "If I could only get work I'd soon
earn it. You can't think of anything for me to do, can you?"

Dick's face lighted up.

"Yes," he said, "I can get you a job, though it aint a very good one. I
wonder