It was shortly after this that the veteran offered to do second girl's
work in my house if I would take him. The place was not vacant; and as the
summer was now drawing to a close, and I feared to be left with him on my
hands for the winter, it seemed well to speak to him upon the subject of
economy. The next time he called, I had not about me the exact sum for a
night's lodging,--fifty cents, namely--and asked him if he thought a
dollar would do He smiled sadly, as if he did not like jesting upon such a
very serious subject, but said he allowed to work it out, and took it.

"Now, I hope you won't think I am interfering with your affairs," said his
benefactor, "but I really think you are a very poor financier. According
to your own account, you have been going on from year to year for a long
time, trusting to luck for a night's lodging. Sometimes I suppose you have
to sleep out-of-doors."

"No, never!" answered the veteran, with something like scorn. "I never
sleep out-doors. I wouldn't do it."

"Well, at any rate, some one has to pay for your lodging. Don't you think
you'd come cheaper to your friends, if, instead of going to a hotel every
night, you'd take a room somewhere, and pay for it by the month?"

"I've thought of that. If I could get a good bed, I'd try it awhile
anyhow. You see the hotels have raised. I used to get a lodgin' and a nice
breakfast for a half a dollar, but now it is as much as you can do to get
a lodgin' for the money, and it's just as dear in the Port as it is in the
city. I've tried hotels pretty much everywhere, and one's about as bad as
another."

If he had been a travelled Englishman writing a book, he could not have