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