saying,

"I should think it might be real kind o' comfortable."

"Kind o' comfortable!" echoed Ben, angrily. "Well, I don't know
anything about Chicago, but if you know of any fellers there that have
got any better place than this, I'd like to go out an' stay two or
three months with 'em."

"Well, you see I don't know much about it," said Paul, conscious that
he had hurt his kind-hearted friend's feelings, and anxious to make
amends in some way. "I've always lived in a regular house with father
and mother, so I don't know how boys do live that haven't got any
home."

"You'll see how they live before you get back to Chicago," said Ben,
grimly; and then he added, in a softened voice, "I'd like to see how
it would seem to have a father an' a mother, an' a house to live in."

"Didn't you ever have any, Ben?"

"No," and the boy's voice trembled now in spite of himself; "I don't
s'pose I ever did. Me an' Shiner have been livin' round this way ever
since we can remember, an' I reckon we always lived so. We used to
sleep 'round anywhere till Dickey Spry got a chance to run a stand
over'n Jersey City, an' then he sold us this place for fifty cents,
an' I tell you we've fatted right up ever since we had it."

The conversation was taking such a sorrowful turn that Johnny's
entrance just then was very welcome. Paul stood very much in need of
some cheerful company, to prevent the great lump that was growing in
his throat from getting the best of him.

"Well, you are goin' it strong!" exclaimed Johnny, as he closed the
door, by pulling one portion of their house against the other. "Why
this is 'bout as good as a 'lectric light, ain't it? I tell you we
shall be jest as snug as mice when winter comes, for this candle makes
the place so warm."

Johnny's idea of the heat from one candle could not be a correct one,
if he thought that their house would be as warm in January from it as
it was then in August. But January was so far away that no one thought
of starting an argument on the subject.

Ben brought forward the dainties he had bought, and although Shiner's
eyes did not stick out as far as he had said, there was enough of a
pleasant surprise in his face to satisfy Ben for the outlay he had
made.

"Now this is what I call livin' high," said Johnny, in a choking
voice, as he tried to eat pea-nuts, bologna sausage, and crackers, all
at the same time. "Seems like we'd had a reg'lar streak of luck ever
since we bought this