of gratitude for
the service rendered, engaged our hero in his employ at the unusual
compensation, for a beginner, of ten dollars a week. His friend, Henry
Fosdick, was in a hat store on Broadway, but thus far only received six
dollars a week.

Feeling that it was time to change their quarters to a more respectable
portion of the city, they one morning rang the bell of Mrs. Browning's
boarding-house, on Bleecker Street.

They were shown into the parlor, and soon a tall lady, with flaxen
ringlets and a thin face, came in.

"Well, young gentleman, what can I do for you?" she said, regarding them
attentively.

"My friend and I are looking for a boarding-place," said Henry Fosdick.
"Have you any rooms vacant?"

"What sort of a room would you like?" asked Mrs. Browning.

"We cannot afford to pay a high price. We should be satisfied with a
small room."

"You will room together, I suppose?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"I have a room vacant on the third floor, quite a good-sized one, for
which I should charge you seven dollars apiece. There is a room on the
fourth floor, not so large, which you can have for five dollars each."

"I think we'll look at that," said Richard Hunter.

"Very well, then follow me."

Mrs. Browning preceded the boys to the fourth floor, where she opened
the door of a neat room, provided with two single beds, a good-sized
mirror, a bureau, a warm woollen carpet, a washstand, and an empty
bookcase for books. There was a closet also, the door of which she
opened, showing a row of pegs for clothing.

"How do you like it?" asked Fosdick, in a low voice, turning to his
companion.

"It's bully," said Dick, in admiring accents.

I may as well say here, what the reader will find out as we proceed,
that our hero, in spite of his advance in learning, had not got entirely
rid of some street phrases, which he had caught from the companions with
whom he had for years associated.

"Five dollars is rather a steep price," said Fosdick, in a low voice.
"You know I don't get but six in all."

"I'll tell you what, Fosdick," said Dick; "it'll be ten dollars for the
two of us. I'll pay six, and you shall pay four. That'll be fair,--won't
it?"

"No, Dick, I ought to pay my half."

"You can make it up by helpin' me when I run against a snag, in my
studies."

"You know as much as I do now, Dick."

"No, I don't. I haven't any more ideas of grammar than a broomstick. You
know I called 'cat' a conjunction the othe