oor and looked around him. A little later when
he let himself quietly into the street, he had under his arm, carefully
wrapped up, his cuckoo clock and a couple of pictures. That night at
Galazatti's, when he handed to Pinac and Fico the money he had borrowed
from them at Castle Garden and paid for the little dinner which he gave
them to celebrate the arrival of Poons in America, they did not suspect
that he had spent the very last dollar he had in the world.

* * * * * *

Young Poons was not a success at first. He had a good technique and
was a well-grounded musician, but he could not get an engagement suited
to him, as he was not in the Union, and the foolish boy would not play
dance music. He said he couldn't, and unfortunately the responsibility
for his financial condition rested on Von Barwig. It was he who was
compelled to make arrangements with Miss Husted and it was a hard blow
to him to have the additional incumbrance, especially when times were
so hard and pupils so scarce. It may be imagined that Miss Husted did
not take very kindly to the new arrival, who was unable to pay even his
first week's room rent. Of course she sympathised with his misfortune,
but thought he should have taken care of his money and not have handed
it to the first person who asked for it, so that now he was a pauper.
She discussed this delicate point with Mrs. Mangenborn in the strict
privacy of her room, but Jenny's ears were very sharp and her sympathy
went out to young Poons. "Poor young man," she thought, "what a pity
that he had been robbed." That his mother and father were dead added
to the romance, and she felt a sort of a fellow-orphan's interest in
him. "Poor boy! robbed of his fortune on his arrival in a strange
country; penniless and homeless; can't speak a word of English; as
helpless as a child." The maternal instinct in the child was aroused,
and his large innocent blue eyes and blond hair made a very strong
appeal to her. He needed a mother and she determined to be a mother to
him. So, many a little delicacy was left surreptitiously in his room;
now a box of chocolates, now a slice of cake, or even a few flowers.
When young Poons would thank Miss Husted for these attentions in the
choicest German that lady would turn on him and tell him to mind his
own business, and he would smile and bow deferentially to her, saying,
"Ja, Frau Hooston."

As the weeks went on, the struggle fo