rse'n you do. But
all the same, we've seen how you felt about it, an' we've come to the
'clusion that you'd better not stay here any longer."

Paul looked up in fear and surprise, for it certainly seemed as if he
was being turned away.

"No," continued Ben, in a loud voice, growing more emphatic the nearer
he approached the conclusion of his speech--"we've made up our minds
that you've got to go, an' Dickey here's all ready to take your place
as one of the boarders. We give a pretty good show Saturday night,
an' we got so much money out of it that we've bought this for you
so's you can go home."

Ben handed Paul the ticket, which he had opened to full length as he
ceased speaking, and it was some moments before the surprised boy
could understand it all. But when he realized that now he could go to
his friends, if not to his parents, his joy was more than he could
control, and from its very excess came the tears in an irresistible
torrent.

CHAPTER XIII.

A JOYFUL MEETING.

It is highly probable that one might have searched over New York City
that night and not found a happier household than that of Mrs.
Green's. Paul was so wonderfully happy in the thought that he was
going back to Chicago, where, even though he could not see his
parents, he should find relatives and friends, that he could talk of
little else. Even the theatre was forgotten by him; for when Mopsey
spoke of the necessity of getting another boy to take his place in the
dramatic company he hardly gave the matter a thought, except to say
that he hoped they would make plenty of money out of it. And Paul's
partners were happy, more happy than they could possibly have been by
any other outlay of their money; Paul's pleasure reflected on them to
such a degree that they became almost as much excited as he was before
the evening was over.

Good Mrs. Green alternately laughed and cried, until she seemed to
realize that such nervousness was not exactly suitable to the
occasion, and then she busied herself by reading one of the papers Ben
had brought home.

Master Treat had spent so much time on the good work he had carried
through so successfully, and then had paid so much more attention to
the boy he was going to surprise than to the sale of his goods, that,
instead of helping Johnny as had been his purpose when he took some of
his papers to sell, he was a drawback, and the consequence was that
Mrs. Green had three evening papers to read, while