't hope to get even half of that. He
offered seventy dollars, and I asked for five hundred, and after a
while he gave me three-fifty, and I felt I'd done pretty well--for a
greenhorn. I put the money in my purse, and went back to the car, and
on the way I saw a policeman, so I stopped and asked him about a
hotel. He looked me up and down, and started asking questions about
how old I was, and what was my name and where did I live, and I began
to realize that being so much smaller than the other people was going
to make life complicated. I told him I'd come to visit my brother in
the Academy, and he smiled, and said, "Your _brother_, is it?" Then he
told me the name of a place just outside of town, near the Academy. It
wasn't a hotel; it was a _mo_tel, which I didn't know about at that
time, but he said I'd be better off there. A lot of what he said went
right over my head at the time; later I realized what he meant about
"a nice respectable couple" running the place. I found out later on,
too, that he called them up to ask them to keep an eye on me; he
thought I was a nice girl, but he was worried about my being alone
there.

By this time, I was getting hungry, but I thought I'd better go and
arrange about a place to stay first. I found the motel without much
trouble, and went in and registered; I knew how to do that, at
least--I'd seen it plenty of times. They gave me a key, and the man
who ran the place asked me did I want any help with my bags.

"Oh, no," I said. "No, thanks. I haven't got much."

I'd forgotten all about that, and they'd never thought about it
either! These people always have a lot of different clothes, not just
one set, and you're supposed to have a suitcase full of things when
you go to stay anyplace. I said I was hungry anyway, and wanted to go
get something to eat, and do a couple of other things--I didn't say
what--before I got settled. So the woman walked over with me, and
showed me which cabin it was, and asked was everything all right?

It looked all right to me. The room had a big bed in it, with sheets
and a blanket and pillows and a bedspread, just like the ones I'd seen
on television. And there was a chest of drawers, and a table with more
small drawers in it, and two chairs and a mirror and one door that
went into a closet and one that led to the bathroom. The fixtures in
there were a little different from the ones they'd made for me to
practice in, but functionally they seemed about