large room at the top
which served as the "hotel" office. There were rows of chairs in
front of the windows and along the walls, and in the chairs were
the queerest-looking lot of men he had ever seen. He didn't pay any
attention to them, though, but went up to the seedy individual behind
the desk, and asked him if he could get a bed for the night. "Sure,
Mike," the man replied, and Archie signed his name in a dirty book with
torn pages. He paid the man ten cents, and asked if he could leave his
bundle while he went outside. "Sure, Mike," was again his answer, and
the man took his little bundle of necessities and threw them on the
floor behind the counter. When Archie had gone out, a fat man with a
baby face came up and whispered to the clerk. "Anything in the bloke?"
he inquired. "Nit," said the clerk, "don't yer see his baggage? Does
it look like there's anything in it?" And the mysterious conversation
closed, to be continued later in the evening.

CHAPTER VIII.

LOOKING FOR WORK--WASHING DISHES IN A BOWERY RESTAURANT.

AFTER a couple of hours spent in going about the streets, Archie went
into a place where he bought some coffee and rolls for his supper. He
paid only five cents for three sweet rolls and a large cup of coffee
which was not at all bad to taste, and he returned to the lodging-house
on the Bowery feeling better than he had expected to feel when he
started out from the homestead where he spent the previous night, If
he could get a good meal for five or ten cents, and could sleep for ten
cents more, he would have enough to keep him going for some time.

The Bowery at night presented a wonderful appearance to Archie's mind.
The brilliantly lighted shops, the cheap theatres with their bands of
musicians on the sidewalk in front of the entrance, were all attractive
to his boyish eyes, but he was wise enough to pass them all by, and
to make his way as quickly as possible to the cheap lodging-house. The
street was jammed with persons of every description. He was surprised
particularly at the number of Chinamen he met, for he didn't know that a
block or two away was the centre of the Chinese population of New York,
where the Celestials have their theatre, their hotels, their great
stores, and their joss-house. There were many Italians in the street,
too, and Polish Jews, to say nothing of Frenchmen and Germans. Then
there was the typical Bowery "tough," who swaggered up and down, looking
for trouble,