a plate of beef, with a potato and a wedge of bread,
costing ten cents, and the second, a piece of apple-pie.

"That's a good square meal," said Dick, in a tone of satisfaction. "I
oughter get one every day, but sometimes I don't have the money."

"I should think you could raise fifteen cents a day for that purpose,
Dick."

"Well, so I could; but then you see I save my money sometimes to go to
the Old Bowery, or Tony Pastor's, in the evenin'."

"I would like to go, too, but I wouldn't give up my dinner. A boy that's
growing needs enough to eat."

"I guess you're right," said Dick. "We'll go to dinner together every
day, if you say so."

"All right, Dick; I should like your company."

About two o'clock in the afternoon, as Frank was resting on a bench in
the City-Hall Park, a girl of ten approached him. Frank recognized her
as an inmate of the tenement-house where Mills, his late employer,
lived.

"Do you want to see me?" asked Frank, observing that she was looking
towards him.

"You're the boy that went round with the blind man, aint you?" she
asked.

"Yes."

"He wants you to come back."

Frank was rather surprised, but concluded that Mills had difficulty in
obtaining a boy to succeed him. This was not very remarkable,
considering the niggardly pay attached to the office.

"Did he send you to find me?" asked our hero.

"Yes; he says you needn't pass that money if you'll come back."

"Tell him that I don't want to come back," said Frank, promptly. "I can
do better working for myself."

"He wants to know what you are doing," continued the girl.

"Does he? You can tell him that I am a newsboy."

"He says if you don't come back he'll have you arrested for stealing
money from him. You mustn't be mad with me. That's what he told me to
say."

"I don't blame you," said Frank, hotly; "but you can tell him that he is
a liar."

"Oh, I wouldn't dare to tell him that; he would beat me."

"How can he do that, when he can't see where you are?"

"I don't know how it is, but he can go right up to where you are just as
well as if he could see."

"So he can. He's a humbug and a fraud. His eyes may not be very good,
but he can see for all that. He pretends to be blind so as to make
money."

"That's what mother and I think," said the girl. "So you won't come
back?"

"Not much. He can hire some other boy, and starve him. He won't get me."

"Aint you afraid he'll have you arrested for stealing?" asked the g