a man of moderate
means is forced to go in the city. The dingy walls and threadbare
carpet got geometrically shabbier at each succeeding flight of stairs,
until at length the boy ushered him into a little room at the head of
the stairway. It was unwarmed and had no lock on the door; but the bed
was clean, and, as he soon found, very comfortable.

XXIV.

RADBOURN SHOWS BRADLEY ABOUT THE CAPITAL.

He woke in the morning from his dreamless sleep with that peculiar
familiar sensation of not knowing where he had lain down the night
before. There was something boyish in the soundness of his sleep. He
heard the newsboys calling outside, although it was apparently the
early dawn. Their voices made him think of Des Moines, for the reason
that Des Moines was the only city in which he had ever heard the
newsboys cry. He sprang from his bed at the thought of Radbourn. He
would hunt him up at once! He was surprised to find that it had snowed
during the night, and everywhere the darkies were cleaning the walks.

Walking thus a perfect stranger in what seemed to him a great city he
did not feel at all like a rising young man. In fact the farther he got
from Rock River the smaller his importance grew, for he had the
imagination that comprehends relative values.

On the street he passed a window where a big negro was cooking
griddle-cakes, dressed in a snowy apron and a paper cap. He looked so
clean and wholesome that Bradley decided upon getting his breakfast
there, and going in, took his seat at one of the little tables. A
colored boy came up briskly.

"I'd like some of those cakes," said Bradley, to whom all this was very
new.

"Brown the wheats!" yelled the boy, and added in a low voice,
"Buckwheat or batter?"

"Buckwheat, I guess."

"Make it bucks!" the boy yelled, by the way of correction, and asked
again in a low voice, "Coffee?"

"If you please."

"One up light."

While Bradley was eating his cakes, which were excellent, others came
in, and the waiters dashed to and fro, shouting their weird orders.

"Ham _and_, two up coff, a pair, boot-leg, white wings."

Bradley had a curiosity to see what this order would bring forth, and,
watching carefully, found that it secured ham and eggs, two cups of
coffee, a beefsteak, and an omelet. He was deeply interested in the
discovery.

He recognized the most of the men around him as Western or Southern
types. Many of them had chin whiskers and wore soft crush hats