"I hope you'll excuse the looks. I'm a lone woman, and my help is so
shiftless, I have to look after everything myself; so I can't keep
things as straight as I want to."

"All right!" said Dick.

"Can you pay me the first week in advance?" asked the landlady,
cautiously.

Dick responded by drawing seventy-five cents from his pocket, and
placing it in her hand.

"What's your business, sir, if I may inquire?" said Mrs. Mooney.

"Oh, I'm professional!" said Dick.

"Indeed!" said the landlady, who did not feel much enlightened by
this answer.

"How's Tom?" asked Dick.

"Do you know my Tom?" said Mrs. Mooney in surprise. "He's gone to
sea,--to Californy. He went last week."

"Did he?" said Dick. "Yes, I knew him."

Mrs. Mooney looked upon her new lodger with increased favor, on
finding that he was acquainted with her son, who, by the way, was
one of the worst young scamps in Mott Street, which is saying