M RS. HILL, Oliver\'s landlady, was glad to obtain another lodger. She had a vacant square room which she was willing to let for five dollars a week. Oliver reported this to Nicholas Bundy at the hotel the next morning.

"If the price is too high," he added, with an involuntary glance at the stranger\'s shabby appearance, "perhaps Mrs. Hill will take less."

"I am willing to pay five dollars," said Nicholas promptly. "If you recommend it I have no doubt it will suit me."

When Mr. Bundy presented himself to the landlady, she, too,—for necessity had made her sharp-sighted and experience had made her suspicious,—evidently felt the same distrust as to his pecuniary status.

"Would you mind paying weekly in advance?" she asked doubtfully.

A smile lighted up his rough features.

"No, ma\'am," he said; "that\'ll suit me just as well."

He drew out a large pouch, which appeared to be full of gold pieces, and drew therefrom an eagle.

"That\'ll pay for two weeks," he said, as he placed the coin in her hand.

The display of so much gold and his willingness to pay for his room two weeks in advance at once increased the lady\'s respect for him.

"I shall try to make your room comfortable for you," she said. "There\'s a sofa I can put in, and I\'ve got an extra rocking-chair."

The stranger smiled.

"I\'m afraid you\'ll spoil me," he said. "I\'m used to roughing it, but you may put \'em in. When my young friend here comes to see me, he can sit on either."

A shabby-looking trunk and a heavy wooden box were deposited in the room before sunset.

"Now I\'m at home," said Nicholas Bundy, with satisfaction. "You\'ll come and see me often, won\'t you, Oliver?"

He had already begun to call our hero by his Christian name, and evidently felt quite an interest in him.

"I can promise that," said Oliver, "for I am a gentleman of leisure just now."

"How is that?" asked Bundy quickly.

"I have lost my situation, and have all my time at my own disposal."

"How do you pay your way, then?" enquired Nicholas.

"I have money enough on hand to last me about ten weeks, or, with rigid economy, even longer. Before that time passes, I hope to get another situation."

"How much does it cost you to live?"

"About ten dollars a week."

"Suppose I employ you for about a week," proposed Bundy.

"Is it any work I am fit for?" asked Oliver. "If so, I say yes, and thank you."

"It is something you can do. You must know that it is twenty years since I have set foot in New York, and it\'s grown beyond my knowledge. I want to go about and see for myself what changes have taken place in it. Will you go with me?"

"Yes, Mr. Bundy, I will go with you, and charge nothing for it."

"That won\'t do," said the stranger. "I shall insist on paying you ten dollars a week."

"But it seems like robbing you."

"Don\'t you trouble yourself about that. You think I am poor, perhaps?"

"You don\'t look as if you were rich," said Oliver, hesitating.

"No, I suppose not," said Mr. Bundy slowly. "I don\'t look it, but I am worth fifty thousand dollars—in fact, more."

Oliver looked surprised.

"You wonder that I am so rough-looking—that I don\'t wear fine clothes, and sport a gold watch and chain. It aint in my way, boy. I\'ve been used to roughing it so long that it wouldn\'t come nat\'ral for me to change—that\'s all."

"I am glad you are so well off, Mr. Bundy," said Oliver heartily.

"Thank you, boy. It\'s well off in a way, I suppose, but it takes more than money to make a man well off."

"I suppose it does," assented Oliver, but he privately thought that a man with so much money was "well off" after all.

"Suppose, after twenty years\' absence, you came back to your old home and found not a friend left,—that you were alone in the world, and had no one to take the least interest in you,—is that being well off?"

"That is very nearly my own situation," said Oliver. "I have a step-father, but he has cast me off."
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