"Suppose we take a walk?" suggested his companion.

 

"I'd rather go to the Old Bowery."

 

"I should like to go, but I can't afford it."

 

"You get five dollars a week, don't you?"

 

"Yes; but I need all of it for board, lodging¹ and washing. So will you, too. I advise you to be careful about spending."

 

"What's the use of living if a fellow can't have a little fun?" grumbled² Sam.

 

"There won't be much fun in going a day or two without anything to eat, Sam."

 

"We won't have to."

 

"Let me see about that. It costs a dollar and a quarter for the room, to begin with. Then our meals will cost us as much as forty or fifty cents a day, say three dollars a week. That will leave seventy-five cents for clothes and washing."

 

"It isn't much," Sam admitted.

 

"I should think not."

 

"I don't see how I am going to get any clothes."

 

"You certainly can't if you go to the theater."

 

"I used to go sometimes when I was a newsboy, and I didn't earn so much money then."

 

"Probably you didn't have a regular room then."

 

"No, I didn't; and sometimes I only had one meal a day."

 

"That isn't a very nice way to live. You're so old now you ought to be considering what you'll do when you are a man."

 

"I mean to earn more than five dollars a week then."

 

"So do I; but if I were a street boy, picking up my living by blacking boots or selling papers, I shouldn't expect to. Now we have a chance to learn business, and improve."

 

"Were you ever a street boy?" asked Sam, becoming interested in his companion's history.

 

"No, that is, not over a month. I was born in the country."

 

"So was I," said Sam.

 

"My father and mother both died, leaving nothing, and the people wanted to send me to the poorhouse; but I didn't like that, so I borrowed five dollars and came to New York. When I got here I began to think I should have to go back again. I tried to get a place and couldn't. Finally, I bought some papers and earned a little money selling them. It was better than nothing; but all the while I was hoping to get a place. One day, as I was passing the store where I am now, I saw some boys round the door. I asked them what was going on. They told me that Hamilton & Co. had advertised for an

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