I didn't think of it before."

"What is it?" asked Frank, anxiously.

"It's to go round with a blind man, solicitin' contributions."

"You mean begging?"

"Yes; you lead him into stores and countin' rooms, and he asks for
money."

"I don't like it much," said Frank, slowly, "but I must do something.
After all, it'll be he that's begging, not I."

"I'll take you right round where he lives," said Dick. "Maybe he'll go
out this evenin'. His other boy give him the slip, and he hasn' got a
new one yet."

CHAPTER III.

FRANK FINDS AN EMPLOYER.

A stone's throw from Centre street stands a tall tenement-house,
sheltering anywhere from forty to fifty families in squalid
wretchedness. The rent which each family pays would procure a neat house
in a country town, with perhaps a little land beside; but the city has a
mysterious fascination for the poorer classes, and year after year many
who might make the change herd together in contracted and noisome
quarters, when they might have their share of light and space in country
neighborhoods.

It was in front of this tenement-house that Dick halted, and plunged
into a dark entrance, admonishing Frank to follow. Up creaking and
dilapidated staircases to the fourth floor the boys went.

"Here we are," said Dick, panting a little from the rapidity of his
ascent, and began a vigorous tattoo on a door to the left.

"Is this where the blind gentleman lives?" asked Frank, looking around
him dubiously.

"He isn't much of a gentleman to look at," said Dick, laughing. "Do you
hear him?"

Frank heard a hoarse growl from the inside, which might have been "Come
in." At any rate, Dick chose so to interpret it, and opened the door.

The boys found themselves in a scantily furnished room, with a close,
disagreeable smell pervading the atmosphere. In the corner was a low
bedstead, on which lay a tall man, with a long, gray beard, and a
disagreeable, almost repulsive, countenance. He turned his eyes, which,
contrary to Frank's expectations, were wide open, full upon his
visitors.

"What do you want?" he asked querulously. "I was asleep, and you have
waked me up."

"Sorry to disturb you, Mr. Mills," said Dick; "but I come on business."

"What business can you have with me?" demanded the blind man. "Who are
you?"

"I am Dick Rafferty. I black boots in the Park," replied Dick.

"Well, I haven't got any money to pay for blacking boots."

"I didn't expect you had. I hear