They had reached the door of the dining-room by this time.

In the center stood a long table, but there didn’t seem to be much on it except empty plates.  At a side table stood Mrs. Smith, ladling out soup from a large tureen.

“That’s the first course,” whispered Wilkins.  “I hope you’ll like it.”

The boys filed in and took seats.  The servant girl already referred to began to bring plates of soup and set before the boys.  It was a thin, unwholesome-looking mixture, with one or two small pieces of meat, about the size of a chestnut, in each plate, and fragments of potatoes and carrots.  A small, triangular wedge of dry bread was furnished with each portion of soup.

“We all begin to eat together.  Don’t be in a hurry,” said Wilkins, in a low tone.

When all the boys were served, Socrates Smith, who sat in an armchair at the head of the table, said: 

“Boys, we are now about to partake of the bounties of Providence, let me hope, with grateful hearts.”

He touched a hand bell, and the boys took up their soup spoons.

Hector put a spoonful gingerly into his mouth, and then, stopping short, looked at Wilkins.  His face was evidently struggling not to express disgust.

“Is it always as bad?” he asked, in a whisper.

“Yes,” answered Wilkins, shrugging his shoulders.

“But you eat it!”

Wilkins had already swallowed his third spoonful.

“I don’t want to starve,” answered Wilkins, significantly.  “You’ll get used to it in time.”

Hector tried to dispose of a second spoonful, but he had to give it up.  At home he was accustomed to a luxurious table, and this meal seemed to be a mere mockery.  Yet he felt hungry.  So he took up the piece of bread at the side of his plate, and, though it was dry, he succeeded in eating it.

By this time his left-hand neighbor, a boy named Colburn, had finished his soup.  He looked longingly at Hector’s almost untasted plate.

“Ain’t you going to eat your soup?” he asked, in a hoarse whisper

“No.”

“Give it to me?”

“Yes.”

In a trice, Colburn had appropriated Hector’s plate and put his own empty one in its place.  Just after this transfer had been made, Mr. Smith looked over to where Hector was sitting.  He observed the empty plate, and said to himself:  “That new boy has been gorging himself.  He must have a terrible appetite.  Well, that’s one good thing, he ain’t dainty.  Some boys turn up their noses at plain, wholesome diet.  I didn’t know but he might.”

Presently the hand bell rang again, and the soup plates were removed.  In their places were set dinner plates, containing a small section each of corned beef, with a consumptive-looking potato, very probably “soggy.”  At any rate, this was the case with Hector’s.  He succeeded in eating the meat, but not the potato.

“Give me your potato?” asked his left-hand neighbor.