"What's the odds?" he said, indifferently. "A feller gets used to it." Ben looked at Jerry's begrimed hands, and clothes liberally marked with spots of blacking, and he felt that he was not quite ready to get used to appearing in public in this way. He was yet young in his street life. The time came when he ceased to be so particular. "Where do you board?" asked Ben, after a little pause. Jerry Collins stared at the questioner as if he suspected that a joke was intended. But Ben's serious face assured him that he was in earnest. "You're jolly green," he remarked, sententiously. "Look here," said Ben, with spirit, "I'll give you a licking if you say that again." It may be considered rather singular that Jerry, Instead of resenting this threat, was led by it to regard Ben with favor. "I didn't mean anything," he said, by way of apology. "You're a trump, and you'll get over it when you've been in the city a week." "What made you call me green?" asked Ben. "Did you think I boarded up to the Fifth Avenue?" asked Jerry. "What's that,--a hotel?" "Yes, it's one of the big hotels, where they eat off gold plates." "No, I don't suppose you board there," said Ben, laughing; "but I suppose there are cheaper boarding-places. Where do you sleep?" "Sometimes in wagons, or in door-ways, on the docks, or anywhere where I get a chance." "Don't you get cold sleeping out-doors?" asked Ben. "Oh, I'm used to it," said Jerry. "When it's cold I go to the Lodging House." "What's that?" Jerry explained that there was a Newsboys' Lodging House, where a bed could be obtained for six cents a night. "That's cheap," said Ben. "'Taint so cheap as sleepin' out-doors," returned the boot-black. This was true; but Ben thought he would rather pay the six cents than sleep out, if it were only for the damage likely to come to his clothes, which were yet clean and neat. Looking at Jerry's suit, however, he saw that this consideration would be likely to have less weight with him. He began to understand that he had entered upon a very different life from the one he had hitherto led. He was not easily daunted, however. "If he can stand it, I can," he said to himself. CHAPTER III. STREET SCENES. "Here's Broadway," said Jerry, suddenly. They emerged from the side street on which they had been walking, and, turning the corner, found themselves in the great thoroughfare, a block or two above Trinity Church. Ben surveyed the busy scenes that opened before him, with the eager interest of a country boy who saw them for the first time. "What church is that?" he asked, pointing to the tall spire of the imposing church that faces Wall Street. "That's Trinity Church." "Do you go to church there?" "I don't go anywhere else," said Jerry, equivocally. "What's the use of going to church?"