ant.
You go home. Dig potatoes. Make hay. Drive cows. Feed pigs. Do
_anything_ honest, but get out of New York. It's one great
pauper-house, now, with men and boys who can't find anything to do."

"Thank you, sir," said Jack, with a tightening around his heart. "But
I'll find something. You see if I don't--"

"Take my advice, and go home!" replied Mr. Hubbard, kindly.
"Good-morning."

"Good-morning," said Jack, and while going out of that store he had the
vividest recollections of all the country around Crofield.

"I'll keep on trying, anyway," he said. "There's a place for me
somewhere. I'll try some other trade. I'll do _anything_."

So he did, until one man said to him:

"Everybody is at luncheon just now. Begin again by and by; but I'm
afraid you'll find there are no stores needing boys."

"I need some dinner myself," thought Jack. "I feel faint. Mister," he
added aloud, "I must buy some luncheon, too. Where's a good place?"

He was directed to a restaurant, and he seated himself at a table and
ordered roast beef in a sort of desperation.

"I don't care what it costs!" he said. "I've got some money yet."

Beef, potatoes, bread and butter, all of the best, came, and were eaten
with excellent appetite.

Jack was half afraid of the consequences when the waiter put a bright
red check down beside his plate.

"Thirty cents?" exclaimed he joyfully, picking it up. "Why, that's the
cheapest dinner I've had in New York."

"All right, sir. Come again, sir," said the waiter, smiling; and then
Jack sat still for a moment.

"Six dollars, and, more too," he said to himself; "and my room's paid
for besides. I can go right on looking up a place, for days and days,
if I'm careful about my money. I mustn't be discouraged."

He certainly felt more courageous, now that he had eaten dinner, and he
at once resumed his hunt for a place; but there was very little left of
his smile. He went into store after store with almost the same result
in each, until one good-humored gentleman remarked to him:

"My boy, why don't you go to a Mercantile Agency?"

"What's that?" asked Jack, and the man explained what it was.

"I'll go to one right away," Jack said hopefully.

"That's the address of a safe place," said the gentleman writing a few
words. "Look out for sharpers, though. Plenty of such people in that
business. I wish you good luck."

Before long Jack Ogden stood before the desk of the "Mercantil