, and steal without lifting a finger.

Mrs. Whippleton continued, for an hour, to assure me that I was
extraordinarily green, imparting a lesson on worldly wisdom, which, I
am happy to say, at the age of twenty-eight, has been utterly wasted
upon me.

"You haven't seen much of the world, and you don't know what's what
yet; but I like you, young man. You have behaved very well to a lone
woman, and you shan't lose nothing by it," she continued.

"I am entirely satisfied," I replied.

"I didn't mean you should lose anything by me. I might have cheated you
out of twelve dollars just as easy as nothing."

I was certainly very much obliged to her for her kind consideration in
this respect; and I was forced to acknowledge the truth of her
proposition. Though I despised her, I could not help seeing that she
had been just towards me.

"I am very much obliged to you for not doing it," I replied.

"No; I never cheat nobody; and I hate mean folks. It would have been
mean in me to let you lose twelve dollars after what you did for me. If
it hadn't been for you I should have been put out of the car."

"But you had money to pay your fare."

"I wouldn't pay that nasty conductor after I had told him I had no
money. One has to be persistent."

"I think you have been consistent all the way through."

"Thank'ee. After what you did, and the tea you fetched, I felt an
interest in you; and it ain't many folks I do feel an interest in."

Of course not! Not many people would have done anything for her to
induce her to feel an interest in them.

"I reckon you don't belong in Chicago," she continued.

"I do not. I never was there."

"Well, it's a wicked place."

Any place must be wicked from her stand-point.

"I suppose it is no worse than any city of its size."

"I don't know's it is. I suppose you have friends there."

"No."

"Well, where you goin' to stop, then?"

"I don't know yet. I shall go to some hotel, I suppose."

"Hotels are awful dear."

"I think I can stand it for a week or so at a cheap hotel. I don't mean
to go to the Tremont House."

"Don't waste your money in that way, you silly boy. It will cost you a
dollar and a half a day to live at any hotel."

"What shall I do?" I asked, willing to profit by the old lady's
knowledge, while I abhorred her principles.

"I keep boarders myself; and I only charge 'em four dollars a week. I
don't take none for a week or two; but I'll take you, after what's
happe