up collar with a new
necktie; the rest of your clothing is well enough. Don't try to look
dandyish, though."

"Of course not," said Jack, smiling; "but I was thinking about making
some improvements in my suit."

He made several purchases on his way up town, and put each article on
as he bought it. The last "improvement" was a neat straw hat, from a
lot that were selling cheaply, and he looked into a long looking glass
to see what the effect was.

[Illustration: _Jack buys a new hat_.]

"There!" he exclaimed. "There's very little of the 'green' left. It's
not altogether the hat and the collar, either. Nor the necktie. Maybe
some of it was starved out!"

He was a different looking boy, at all events, and the cashier at the
desk of the Hotel Dantzic looked twice at him when he came in, and Mr.
Keifelheimer remarked:

"Dot vas a smart boy! His boss vas here, und I haf safe money. Mr.
Guilderaufenberg vas right about dot boy."

Jack was eager to begin his "drumming," but he ate a hearty supper
before he went out.

"I must learn something about hotels," he remarked thoughtfully. "I'll
take a look at some of them."

The Hotel Dantzic was not small, but it was small compared to some of
the larger hotels that Jack was now to investigate. He walked into the
first one he found, and he looked about it, and then he walked out, and
went into another and looked that over, and then he thought he would
try another. He strolled around through the halls, and offices, and
reading-rooms, and all the public places; but the more he saw, the more
he wondered what good it would do him to study them.

It was about eight o'clock in the evening when he stood in front of the
office of the great Equatorial Hotel, feeling very keenly that he was
still only a country boy, with very little knowledge of the men and
things he saw around him.

A broad, heavy hand came down upon his shoulder, and a voice he had
heard before asked, heartily:

"John Ogden? You here? Didn't I tell you not to stay too long in the
city?"

"Yes, you did, Governor," said Jack, turning quickly. "But I had to
stay here. I've gone into the wholesale and retail grocery business."

Jack already knew that the Governor could laugh merrily, and that any
other men who might happen to be standing by were more than likely to
join with him in his mirth, but the color came at once to his cheeks
when the Governor began to smile.

"In the grocery business?" l