It was well that Archie didn't know his pockets had been searched
while he was asleep, or his faith in human nature would have been more
shaken than ever before. He had not suspected that the men in this
lodging-house might be dishonest.

"They are poor," he said to himself when he saw them first, "but they
may be good men for all that."

After a slender meal, Archie found a library where he looked over the
advertising columns of the morning papers, trying to find some
position open which he thought he might fill. There were several
advertisements calling for office boys, and all these he made note of,
and then as he looked down the page he noticed that a boy was wanted
in a restaurant to wash dishes. He decided that if he didn't succeed
in getting a place as office boy, he might get the restaurant place.
He knew that in a restaurant he would be likely at least to get enough
to eat.

For two hours he called at addresses of men who wanted office boys,
but at every place he was turned away. "We have already hired one,"
some of them said, and others told him that they never took any boys
in the office who were living away from home. Some asked him for
recommendations, and when he had none, they looked at him and told him
"good morning." It was all terribly discouraging, and with every
minute Archie was wishing more and more that he were back home again.
Somehow the city seemed different now from what it had been when Uncle
Henry was with him. Everything was less bright, and the things he had
been delighted with before were less interesting now.