pushed along
through the throng, and was getting out to where the crowd was thinner,
when he suddenly felt a chill and a weak feeling at his heart. He had
thrust his hand into his pocket.

"My pocket-book!" he said, faintly. "It's gone! Where could I have
lost it? I haven't taken it out anywhere. And there was more than
three dollars in it I'd saved to pay for my room!"

He leaned heavily against a lamp-post for a moment, and all the bright
ideas he had ever had about the city became very dim and far away. He
put up one hand before his eyes, and at that moment his arm was firmly
grasped.

"Here, boy! What's the matter?"

He looked up, and saw a blue uniform and a hand with a club in it, but
he could not say a word in reply.

"You seem all right. Are you sick?"

"I've lost my pocket-book," said Jack. "Every cent I had except some
change."

[Illustration: _"I've lost my pocket-book."_]

"That's bad," and the keen-eyed officer understood the matter at a
glance, for he added:

"You were caught in a crowd, and had your pocket picked? I can't do
anything for you, my boy. It's gone, and that's all there is of it.
Never push into crowds if you've any money about you. You'd better go
home now."

"Only sixty-five cents left," Jack said, as he walked away, "for this
evening, and Saturday, and Sunday, and for all next week, till I get
something to do and am paid for doing it!"

He had eaten ten cents' worth of bread and milk at noon; but he was a
strong and healthy boy and he was again hungry. Counting his change
made him hungrier, and he thought longingly of the brilliant
supper-room at the Hotel Dantzic.

"That won't do," he thought. "I must keep away from Keifelheimer and
his restaurant. There, now, that's something like."

It was a small stand, close by a dark-looking cellar way. Half was
covered with apples, candy, peanuts, bananas, oranges, and cocoa-nuts.
The other half was a pay-counter, a newspaper stand, and an
eating-house. Jack's interest centered on a basket, marked, "Ham
Sanwiges Five Cents."

"I can afford a sandwich," he said, "and I've got to eat something!"

At the moment when he leaned over and picked up a sandwich, a small old
woman, behind the counter, reached out her hand toward him; and another
small old woman stretched her hand out to a boy who was testing the
oranges; and a third small old woman sang out very shrilly:

"Here's your sanwiges! Ham sanwiges! Only five