th an ominous scowl.

"I can't pay you now."

"Can't pay me now!" repeated the other, angrily; "what do you mean?"

"I've lost my money," said Sam, feeling more and more uncomfortable.

By this time the patience of the restaurant-keeper was quite gone.

"What business had you to come in here and order an expensive
breakfast when you had no money?" he demanded, furiously.

"I thought I had some money," said Sam, fervently wishing himself back
at the deacon's for the first time since his arrival in the city.

"How could you think you had some when you hadn't any?"

"I had some last night," said Sam, eagerly; "but I slept in Mr.
Brown's room, and he must have robbed me in the night."

"That's a likely story!" sneered the proprietor. "What do you think of
it, Mr. Jones?" he asked, turning to a customer, whom he knew by
name.

Mr. Jones shrugged his shoulders.

"Too thin!" he replied, briefly.

"Of course it is," said the proprietor, angrily. "This boy's evidently
a beat."

"A what?" inquired Sam, who had not been in the city long enough to
understand the meaning of the term.

"A dead beat; but you don't play any of your games on me, young man.
I've cut my eye-teeth, I have. You don't swindle me out of a
fifty-cent breakfast quite so easily. Here, John, call a policeman."

"Oh, don't call a policeman!" exclaimed Sam, terror-stricken. "It's
true, every word I've told you. I'm from the country. I only got to
the city yesterday, and I've been robbed of all my money, over six
dollars. I hope you'll believe me."

"I don't believe a word you say," said the restaurant-keeper, harshly.
"You are trying to come it over me. I dare say you've been round the
streets half your life."

"I think you are wrong, Mr. Chucks," said another customer, who was
waiting to pay his bill. "He's got a country look about him. He don't
look like one of the regular street boys. Better let him go. I
wouldn't call a policeman."

"I ought to," grumbled the proprietor. "Fancy his impudence in
ordering a fifty-cent breakfast, when he hadn't a cent to pay his
bill."

"I wouldn't have come in, if I had known," said Sam.

"Don't tell me," said the man, sharply, "for I don't believe it. Do
you think I can afford to give you breakfast for nothing?"

"I'll pay you as soon as I get some money," said Sam. "Only don't send
me to prison."

"I won't give you in charge this time, though I ought to; but I'll
give you something to settle your br