ing him to hurry up, and the poor
lad tried his best to please him. But somehow everything went wrong, and
he was hardly surprised when the proprietor came in at six o'clock
with a new man for the place. "Come around in the morning," he said to
Archie, "and I'll pay your day's wages."

So the boy was in the street once more, with no money, and no place to
sleep. He wasn't hungry, that was one thing, for he had been allowed
to eat a good meal before leaving the restaurant. But where was he to
sleep, and what was he to do on the morrow, when he would surely be
hungry? His experience at looking for work had not been encouraging, and
he began to have serious doubts as to whether he would ever get a place.
Certainly he would starve if he waited around New York long without
anything to do.

It was quite dark at seven o'clock, and Archie walked over to the
brilliantly lighted street which ran north and south through the city.
He had never failed to find something interesting to look at there, and
he felt now that he would like to see the bright side of city life, even
if he couldn't enjoy it himself. So all the evening he walked up and
down the street, watching the well-dressed crowds hurrying into the
theatres and the other almost innumerable places of amusement. He stared
in open-mouthed amazement at some of the costumes of the women he saw
alighting from carriages. Never before had he seen anything half so
beautiful, and if any one had told him that there were such dresses he
would have told them he didn't believe it. Some of them, he thought,
must cost hundreds of dollars, and the jewels worn with them many
hundreds more. How interesting, how new, it all was to him! Once he
thought of the little home in the village, and at first wished that his
mother might be there to enjoy the sights with him. "But I wouldn't want
her to see me," he thought, "not while I am so miserable, and feeling
so discouraged." For Archie was beginning to wonder if he hadn't made
a mistake in leaving home, whether he had not been overconfident and
hot-headed. But he decided to try it a few days more, that is, if he
could manage to live for that length of time in the city.

At twelve o'clock he was walking up and down the street, which was still
bright with millions of lights, though the crowds had gone home from the
theatres, and the restaurants were beginning to be less popular. He was
still wondering how he was going to find a place to sleep, wh