e to come to lunch," said Fosdick. "Our stores are too
far off."

"Then I will make half a dollar difference with each of you, making nine
dollars a week instead of ten."

The boys went downstairs, well pleased with the arrangement they had
made. Dick insisted upon paying five dollars and a half of the joint
weekly expense, leaving three and a half to Fosdick. This would leave
the latter two dollars and a half out of his salary, while Dick would
have left four and a half. With economy, both thought they could
continue to lay up something.

There was one little embarrassment which suggested itself to the boys.
Neither of them had a trunk, having been able to stow away all their
wardrobe without difficulty in the drawers of the bureau with which
their room in Mott Street was provided.

"Why are you like an elephant, Fosdick?" asked Dick, jocosely, as they
emerged into the street.

"I don't know, I'm sure."

"Because you haven't got any trunk except what you carry round with
you."

"We'll have to get trunks, or perhaps carpet-bags would do."

"No," said Dick, decisively, "it aint 'spectable to be without a trunk,
and we're going to be 'spectable now."

"_Re_spectable, Dick."

"All right,--respectable, then. Let's go and buy each a trunk."

This advice seemed reasonable, and Fosdick made no objection. The boys
succeeded in getting two decent trunks at three dollars apiece, and
ordered them sent to their room in Mott Street. It must be remembered by
my readers, who may regard the prices given as too low, that the events
here recorded took place several years before the war, when one dollar
was equal to two at the present day.

At the close of the afternoon Fosdick got away from the store an hour
earlier, and the boys, preceded by an expressman bearing their trunks,
went to their new home. They had just time to wash and comb their hair,
when the bell rang for dinner, and they went down to the dining-room.

Nearly all the boarders were assembled, and were sitting around a long
table spread with a variety of dishes. Mrs. Browning was a good manager,
and was wise enough to set a table to which her boarders could not
object.

"This way, if you please, young gentlemen," she said, pointing to two
adjoining seats on the opposite side of the table.

Our hero, it must be confessed, felt a little awkward, not being used to
the formality of a boarding-house, and feeling that the eyes of twenty
boarders were upon him.