o fear that they could never stop at this fine place. But they found
Mrs. Jones, the proprietress, both gracious and willing to come to terms
with them.

As Mrs. Hamilton--she began to be Mrs. Hamilton now, to the exclusion of
Fannie--would have described Mrs. Jones, she was a "big yellow woman."
She had a broad good-natured face and a tendency to run to bust.

"Yes," she said, "I think I could arrange to take you. I could let you
have two rooms, and you could use my kitchen until you decided whether
you wanted to take a flat or not. I has the whole house myself, and I
keeps roomers. But latah on I could fix things so 's you could have the
whole third floor ef you wanted to. Most o' my gent'men 's railroad
gent'men, they is. I guess it must 'a' been Mr. Thomas that sent you up
here."

"He was a little bright man down at de deepo."

"Yes, that 's him. That 's Mr. Thomas. He 's always lookin' out to send
some one here, because he 's been here three years hisself an' he kin
recommend my house."

It was a relief to the Hamiltons to find Mrs. Jones so gracious and
home-like. So the matter was settled, and they took up their abode with
her and sent for their baggage.

With the first pause in the rush that they had experienced since
starting away from home, Mrs. Hamilton began to have time for
reflection, and their condition seemed to her much better as it was. Of
course, it was hard to be away from home and among strangers, but the
arrangement had this advantage,--that no one knew them or could taunt
them with their past trouble. She was not sure that she was going to
like New York. It had a great name and was really a great place, but the
very bigness of it frightened her and made her feel alone, for she knew
that there could not be so many people together without a deal of
wickedness. She did not argue the complement of this, that the amount of
good would also be increased, but this was because to her evil was the
very present factor in her life.

Joe and Kit were differently affected by what they saw about them. The
boy was wild with enthusiasm and with a desire to be a part of all that
the metropolis meant. In the evening he saw the young fellows passing by
dressed in their spruce clothes, and he wondered with a sort of envy
where they could be going. Back home there had been no place much worth
going to, except church and one or two people's houses. But these young
fellows seemed to show by their manners that the