houghtfully, halting in front of the
illest looking of the rum-shops. "If I can set up right here now, why
I'll do it."

A very dismal, very forbidding spot it seemed to be, and why any person
should deliberately select it as a place for commencing business was a
mystery; but Tode had his own ideas on the subject, and seemed
satisfied. He looked about him. The night was dark save for street
lamps, and there were none reflecting just where he stood. There was a
revel going on down in the rum-cellar, but he was out of the range of
their lights; elsewhere it was quiet enough. It was quite midnight now,
and that end of the city was in comparative silence.

What did Tode mean to do next? and why was he peering about so
stealthily to see if any human eye was on him? Surely with so recent a
lesson fresh in mind, he had not already forgotten the All-seeing Eye?
Was he going to offend it again? He waited until quite certain that no
one was observing him, then he went around to the side of an old barrel
and kneeled down, and clasped his hands together as Mr. Stephens had
done, and he said: "O Lord Jesus, if I come down here to live I'll try
to do right all around here, every time." Then he rose up and went home
to his room and his bed. He had been down in the midnight and selected
the spot for his next efforts, and consecrated it to the Lord. Another
thing, he had found out how people did when they talked with God. After
that Tode always knelt down to pray.

It was not yet eight o'clock when Tode, his breakfast eaten, his bundle
packed, himself ready to migrate, sat down once more on the edge of that
bed, and began to calculate the state of his finances. He had been at
work in the hotel for his board and clothing; but then there had been
many errands on which he had run for those who had given him a dime, or,
now and then, a quarter, and his expenditures had been small; so now as
he counted the miscellaneous heap, he discovered himself to be the
honest owner of six dollars and seventy-eight cents.

"That ain't so bad to start on," he told himself, complacently. "A
fellow who can't begin business on that capital, ain't much of a fellow.
I wonder now if ever I'll take a peak at this little room of mine again;
'tain't a bad room; I'll have one of my own just like it one of these
days. I'll have a square patch of carpet just that size, red and green
and yellow, like that, and I'll have a patchwork quilt like this one;
who'll make