spirits were very good. The sun shone
brightly; all looked animated and cheerful. Ben saw numbers of men at
work about him, and he thought, "It will be a pity if I cannot make a
living."

He did not care to linger about the wharf, for the captain might be led
to doubt his story. Accordingly he crossed the street, and at a venture
turned up a street facing the wharf.

Ben did not know much about New York, even by report. But he had heard
of Broadway,--as who has not?--and this was about all he did know. When,
therefore, he had gone a short distance, he ventured to ask a
boot-black, whom he encountered at the corner of the next block, "Can
you tell me the shortest way to Broadway?"

"Follow your nose, Johnny," was the reply.

"My name isn't Johnny," replied Ben, rather indignant at the
familiarity. He had not learned that, in New York, Johnny is the generic
name for boy, where the specific name is unknown.

"Aint it though?" returned the boot-black "What's the price of turnips
out where you live?"

"I'll make your nose turn up if you aint careful," retorted Ben,
wrathfully.

"You'll do," said the boot-black, favorably impressed by Ben's pluck.
"Just go straight ahead, and you'll come to Broadway. I'm going that
way, and you can come along with me if you want to."

"Thank you," said Ben, appeased by the boy's changed manner.

"Are you going to stay here?" inquired his new acquaintance.

"Yes," said Ben; "I'm going to live here."

"Where do your friends live?"

"I haven't got any friends in New York," said Ben, with a little
hesitation.

"Over in Brooklyn, or Jersey, maybe?"

"No, I don't know anybody this way."

"Whew!" whistled the other. "How you goin' to live?"

"I expect to earn my living," said Ben, in a tone of importance.

"Father and mother dead?"

"No, they're alive."

"I s'pose they're poor?"

"No, they're not; they're well off."

The boot-black looked puzzled.

"Why didn't you stay at home then? Wouldn't they let you?"

"Of course they would. The fact is, I've run away."

"Maybe they'd adopt me instead of you."

"I don't think they would," said Ben, laughing.

"I wish somebody with lots of cash would adopt me, and make a gentleman
of me. It would be a good sight better'n blackin' boots."

"Do you make much money that way?" inquired Ben.

"Pleasant days like this, sometimes I make a dollar, but when it rains
there aint much doin'."

"How much have you made this morning?" as