does the way you live now--an' you don't eat more than half as often
as you ought to."

Paul looked up with an expression of pleasure in his face, for the
nearer the hour of retiring approached, the more distasteful and
lonely did the hogshead home seem, he could say nothing against it,
for it had served him as shelter when he was utterly alone; but this
idea of living in a house, where some of the womankind would care for
him, was very agreeable to him.

"Mother says that she'll board you, an' see to your clothes, an' do
your washin', for two dollars'n a half a week, an' I think it would be
awful nice for us all to live together."

The boys thought so too; but they also thought of their hogshead,
which seemed so cheerful to them, if Paul did have a disdain for it,
and there was a momentary feeling that they would not like to leave
it, no matter what inducement might be offered. Then there arose
before them the vision of a "regular home," wherein some one would
care for and minister to their comfort, and the advantages of living
in a hogshead grew very few indeed.

"Come up to the house in about an hour, an' see how you like it,"
suggested Nelly, thinking they were hesitating about accepting the
offer. Then, after she had told them the street and number at which
she lived, she added, "We'll be home in a little while now, an' then
if you should think that your house is the nicest, you can still live
where you are."

"We'll come," said Ben, decidedly, for he had already made up his mind
that he should accept the proposition. Then he led the others away
very quickly, as if he had some plan in his mind, as, indeed, he
really had.

"We'll go home an' fix up, an' then we'll take the eye right outer
them, for they think these are the only clothes we've got."

Johnny was delighted with the proposition of "taking the eye out" of
Mrs. Green and her daughter by the splendor of their raiment, and the
two walked so fast, in their eagerness to begin the serious operation
of dressing, that Paul could hardly keep pace with them.

After they had taken the usual precautions to prevent any one from
seeing them when they readied the vicinity of their home, and had
succeeded in getting safely into the hogshead unobserved, they found
the ruined merchant laying plans for the rebuilding of his shattered
fortunes. It was in vain that they urged him to accompany them on
their call. To all their arguments he had but one reply, and tha