e best thing you can do," said Morgan, "I will lend you the
money."

"I hope to repay it inside of two months," said Joe.

"I think you will, judging from what you have done already."

In two hours Joe had paid over the entire amount, for it will be
remembered that he had three hundred dollars of his own, and was
owner of three city lots.

"Now," thought he, "I must attend to business, and clear off the debt
I have incurred. I shan't feel as if the land is mine till I have
paid for it wholly."

Joe found it a great advantage that he obtained his own board and
lodging free. Though wages were high, the necessary expenses of
living were so large that a man earning five dollars a day was worse
off oftentimes than one who was earning two dollars at the East.

"How shall I make my restaurant more attractive?" thought Joe.

He decided first that he would buy good articles and insist upon as
much neatness as possible about the tables. At many of the
restaurants very little attention was paid to this, and visitors who
had been accustomed to neatness at home were repelled.

Soon Joe's dining-room acquired a reputation, and the patronage
increased. At the end of the third month he had not only paid up the
original loan of seven hundred dollars, but was the owner of the
three lots, and had four hundred dollars over. He began to feel that
his prosperity was founded on a solid basis.

One day about this time, as he was at the desk where he received
money from his patrons as they went out, his attention was drawn to a
rough fellow, having the appearance of a tramp, entering at the door.
The man's face seemed familiar to him, and it flashed upon him that
it was Henry Hogan, who had defrauded him in New York.

The recognition was mutual.

"You here?" he exclaimed, in surprise.

"So it seems," said Joe.

"Is it a good place?"

"I like it."

"Who's your boss?"

"Myself."

"You don't mean to say this is your own place?"

"Yes, I do."

"Well, I'll be blowed!" ejaculated Hogan, staring stupidly at Joe.

CHAPTER XVIII

MR. HOGAN'S PROPOSAL

Joe enjoyed Hogan's amazement. He felt rather proud of his rapid
progress. It was not four months since, a poor, country boy, he had
come up to New York, and fallen a prey to a designing sharper. Now,
on the other side of the continent, he was master of a business and
owner of real estate.

The day has passed for such rapid progress. California is no longer
a