"I have a plan of the rooms here," went on the clerk. "Take it and go upstairs and look about you on the different floors. It will be necessary that you should learn the location of the rooms." "I will leave you now, Rupert," said Mr. Sylvester. "You can come back to my house to-night, and to-morrow you can look up a room near the hotel." For the first few days Rupert got very tired. He would have to go upstairs perhaps thirty or forty times during the day, sometimes to the fifth floor. There was an elevator in the Somerset Hotel, but the bell-boys were not allowed to use it. When a guest registered and was assigned to a room on one of the upper floors he was conducted to the elevator, but the bell-boy, carrying his valise, was obliged to walk upstairs, and meet him at the landing-place. Often Rupert felt that there was an injustice in this, and that no harm would be done if he were also allowed to use the elevator. However, he was not foolish enough make any complaint, but by his pleasant manners and cheerful alacrity won the good opinion of Mr. Malcolm, the clerk. The Somerset Hotel was on the European and American systems combined. If a guest preferred simply to lodge at the hotel he could do so, and take his meals either at the hotel restaurant or in any other. One day a guest registered who was assigned to No. 143, on the fifth floor. To Rupert was assigned the duty of carrying up the valise. He found it unusually heavy, and more than once as he climbed the stairs he felt that he would be glad to reach his destination. At the elevator landing he met the owner of the valise, a middle-aged man with a brown, sunburned face. "You found it rather a heavy tug, didn't you?" he asked, with a smile. "Your clothes seem to be heavy," returned Rupert. "It isn't clothes merely," said the stranger. "I come from Colorado, and I have some specimens of quartz inside. Here, give me the valise, and lead the way to my room." Rupert did so. When they reached No. 143 the stranger drew a fifty cent piece from his pocket and handed it to Rupert. "Take it," he said. "You deserve something for carrying such a load." "Thank you, sir," said Rupert. "I don't find many guests so liberal." "Shall I tell you why I am so liberal? It is because when I was a boy, rather older than you, I was for four months a bell-boy in a Chicago hotel." "Were you, indeed, sir?" said Rupert, with interest. "Did you retire on a fortune?" "No; fees were few and far between. However, I saved a little and borrowed a little more, and made my way first to Nevada, and afterwards to Colorado. I have been pretty well prospered, and now I come home to see my old father and mother in Maine." "I hope you will find them well." "Thank you, my boy, I heartily hope so. It is seventeen years since I have seen their dear old faces, and it will be a good day for me when we meet again." "Are your father and mother both living?" "Both at last accounts."