e from New York this morning?"

"Yes."

"Then you haven't got enough to pay for your ticket yet?"

Phil shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't believe you'll make your fortune out here."

Phil was of precisely the same opinion, but kept silent.

"You would have done better to stay in New York."

To this also Phil mentally assented, but there were imperative reasons,
as we know, for leaving the great city.

It was already half-past twelve, and Phil began, after his walk, to
feel the cravings of appetite. He accordingly went into the grocery and
bought some crackers and cheese, which he sat down by the stove and ate.

"Are you going farther?" asked the same young man who had questioned him
before.

"I shall go back to Newark to-night," said Phil.

"Let me try your violin."

"Can you play?" asked Phil, doubtfully, for he feared that an
unpracticed player might injure the instrument.

"Yes, I can play. I've got a fiddle at home myself."

Our hero surrendered his fiddle to the young man, who played passably.

"You've got a pretty good fiddle," he said. "I think it's better than
mine. Can you play any dancing tunes?"

Phil knew one or two, and played them.

"If you were not going back to Newark, I should like to have you play
with me this evening. I don't have anybody to practice with."

"I would not know where to sleep," said Phil, hesitatingly.

"Oh, we've got beds enough in our house. Will you stay?"

Phil reflected that he had no place to sleep in Newark except such as he
might hire, and decided to accept the offer of his new friend.

"This is my night off from the store," he said. "I haven't got to come
back after supper. Just stay around here till six o'clock. Then I'll
take you home and give you some supper, and then we'll play this
evening."

Phil had no objection to this arrangement. In fact, it promised to be an
agreeable one for him. As he was sure of a supper, a bed and breakfast,
there was no particular necessity for him to earn anything more
that day. However, he went out for an hour or two, and succeeded in
collecting twenty-five cents. He realized, however, that it was not so
easy to pick up pennies in the country as in the city--partly because
population is sparser and partly because, though there is less privation
in the country, there is also less money.

A little before six Phil's new friend, whose name he ascertained was
Edwin Grover, washed his hands, and, putting on his coat, said