w that it would be of no use to persist in his request, and he
went out sulkily.

That day he found a bunch of keys in the street. This was not a very
valuable discovery, and he was tempted at first to throw them down
again, when an idea struck him. He dropped the keys into his pocket,
and when his lunch hour came, instead of going to a restaurant, as
usual, he hurried back to his boarding-house.

The landlady met him as he was going upstairs.

"Have you lost your place?" she asked, suspiciously; for in this case
Sam would probably be unable to pay his weekly rent.

"Oh, no," said Sam. "I left something at home, that's all."

He entered his room, and carefully locked the door behind him.

Then he got down on his knees, and, one after the other, he tried the
lock of Henry's trunk with the keys he had found. The fifth opened
it.

Sam blushed with shame, as he saw the inside of the trunk, with its
contents neatly arranged. In spite of his faults he had some honorable
feelings, and he felt that he was engaged in a contemptible business.
He was violating the confidence of his friend and roommate, who had
been uniformly kind to him, though he had declined to lend him money
latterly. Sam admitted to himself that in this refusal he was
justified, for he knew very well that there was very little chance of
repayment.

Sam hoped to find some money in the trunk; but in this hope he was
destined to be disappointed. Henry was in the habit of making a weekly
deposit in the savings-bank, and therefore he had no surplus stock of
money. But at the bottom of his trunk was his savings-bank book. Sam
opened it, and his eyes sparkled when he counted up the deposits, and
found that they amounted to twenty-six dollars.

"I didn't think Henry had so much money," he said to himself.

He thrust the book into his pocket, and hurriedly locked the trunk. He
went downstairs, and hastened to the bank, which, unlike the Sixpenny
Savings Bank, was located downtown, and not far from the City Hall.
Henry had selected it on account of its nearness.

Sam entered the banking house, and went to the window of the paying
clerk. He had accompanied Henry to the bank more than once, and knew
just where to go.

"How much do you want?" asked the clerk, in a business-like tone.

"Twenty dollars," replied Sam, who had made up his mind not to take
the whole. This was not due to any particular consideration, but on
the way he had read the rules of the ba