soon found
himself in the neighborhood of the box at which the carrier had
received the letter written by Mr. Potter. He took a brief survey of
the locality.

"Not very promising," was his mental comment.

All about were big tenement houses of a substantial kind. They were
built of brick, and from nearly every window a woman's head
protruded, while the street swarmed with children. It was a
neighborhood teeming with life, for it was the abode of the poor,
and they were quartered together almost like rabbits in a warren.

For want of something better to do, Larry strolled down one side of
the street, at the end of which was located the letter box which
formed such a slender clue. Then he walked up the other side,
looking about him idly, in vain hopes of stumbling on something that
would put him on the track.

It was late in the afternoon, and the streets were beginning to
fill with workers hurrying home, for the day's labor was over. As
Larry strolled along, rather careless of his steps, he collided with
a man in front of a big tenement building.

"Excuse me," murmured the reporter.

"I beg your pardon," the man said, grabbing hold of Larry to prevent
them both from falling, so forceful had been the impact. "I was
looking to see if my wife was watching for me. She generally looks
out of the window to see me coming down the street, and then she
puts the potatoes on."

"I guess I wasn't looking where I was going," said Larry, as he
disengaged himself from the man's grip. "I was--why, hello, Mr.
Jackson!" he exclaimed.

"What! Why, bless my soul if it isn't Larry Dexter!" and the man
held out his hand. "Why, I haven't seen you in a long time. How's
your mother and the children?"

"Fine. How's Mrs. Jackson?"

"She's well. There she is looking out of the window, wondering why I
don't come home to supper. You must come in and see her. Come, and
stay to supper."

The man Larry had thus unexpectedly met was the one in whose flat
Mrs. Dexter and the children had stayed the first night they had
come to New York, and found that the sister of Larry's mother, with
whom they expected to remain, had suddenly moved away. The Dexter
family, sad and discouraged at the loss of their farm, would have
fared badly on their arrival in the big city had not Mrs. Jackson
and her husband befriended them.

While Larry was getting a start in the newspaper work the Dexter
family had lived in the same tenement with the Jacksons, and