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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ragged Dick, by Horatio Alger
+#12 in our series by Horatio Alger
+
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+Title: Ragged Dick
+       Street Life in New York with the Boot-Blacks
+
+Author: Horatio Alger
+
+Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5348]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on July 4, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RAGGED DICK ***
+
+
+
+
+Digitized by Cardinalis Etext Press [C.E.K.]
+Prepared for Project Gutenberg by Andrew Sly
+
+
+
+
+
+RAGGED DICK;
+
+OR,
+
+STREET LIFE IN NEW YORK WITH THE BOOT-BLACKS.
+
+BY HORATIO ALGER JR.
+
+
+
+  To Joseph W. Allen,
+  at whose suggestion this story was undertaken,
+  it is inscribed with friendly regard.
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+"Ragged Dick" was contributed as a serial story to the pages of the
+Schoolmate, a well-known juvenile magazine, during the year 1867.
+While in course of publication, it was received with so many
+evidences of favor that it has been rewritten and considerably
+enlarged, and is now presented to the public as the first volume
+of a series intended to illustrate the life and experiences of the
+friendless and vagrant children who are now numbered by thousands
+in New York and other cities.
+
+Several characters in the story are sketched from life. The
+necessary information has been gathered mainly from personal
+observation and conversations with the boys themselves. The author
+is indebted also to the excellent Superintendent of the Newsboys'
+Lodging House, in Fulton Street, for some facts of which he has been
+able to make use. Some anachronisms may be noted. Wherever they
+occur, they have been admitted, as aiding in the development of the
+story, and will probably be considered as of little importance in
+an unpretending volume, which does not aspire to strict historical
+accuracy.
+
+The author hopes that, while the volumes in this series may prove
+interesting stories, they may also have the effect of enlisting the
+sympathies of his readers in behalf of the unfortunate children whose
+life is described, and of leading them to co-operate with the
+praiseworthy efforts now making by the Children's Aid Society and
+other organizations to ameliorate their condition.
+
+New York, April, 1868
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+RAGGED DICK IS INTRODUCED TO THE READER
+
+
+"Wake up there, youngster," said a rough voice.
+
+Ragged Dick opened his eyes slowly, and stared stupidly in the face
+of the speaker, but did not offer to get up.
+
+"Wake up, you young vagabond!" said the man a little impatiently;
+"I suppose you'd lay there all day, if I hadn't called you."
+
+"What time is it?" asked Dick.
+
+"Seven o'clock."
+
+"Seven o'clock! I oughter've been up an hour ago. I know what 'twas
+made me so precious sleepy. I went to the Old Bowery last night, and
+didn't turn in till past twelve."
+
+"You went to the Old Bowery? Where'd you get your money?" asked the
+man, who was a porter in the employ of a firm doing business on
+Spruce Street. "Made it by shines, in course. My guardian don't
+allow me no money for theatres, so I have to earn it."
+
+"Some boys get it easier than that," said the porter significantly.
+
+"You don't catch me stealin', if that's what you mean," said Dick.
+
+"Don't you ever steal, then?"
+
+"No, and I wouldn't. Lots of boys does it, but I wouldn't."
+
+"Well, I'm glad to hear you say that. I believe there's some
+good in you, Dick, after all."
+
+"Oh, I'm a rough customer!" said Dick. "But I wouldn't steal.
+It's mean."
+
+"I'm glad you think so, Dick," and the rough voice sounded gentler
+than at first. "Have you got any money to buy your breakfast?"
+
+"No, but I'll soon get some."
+
+While this conversation had been going on, Dick had got up. His
+bedchamber had been a wooden box half full of straw, on which the
+young boot-black had reposed his weary limbs, and slept as soundly
+as if it had been a bed of down. He dumped down into the straw
+without taking the trouble of undressing.
+
+Getting up too was an equally short process. He jumped out of the
+box, shook himself, picked out one or two straws that had found
+their way into rents in his clothes, and, drawing a well-worn cap
+over his uncombed locks, he was all ready for the business of the
+day.
+
+Dick's appearance as he stood beside the box was rather peculiar.
+His pants were torn in several places, and had apparently belonged
+in the first instance to a boy two sizes larger than himself. He
+wore a vest, all the buttons of which were gone except two, out of
+which peeped a shirt which looked as if it had been worn a month.
+To complete his costume he wore a coat too long for him, dating
+back, if one might judge from its general appearance, to a remote
+antiquity.
+
+Washing the face and hands is usually considered proper in
+commencing the day, but Dick was above such refinement. He had no
+particular dislike to dirt, and did not think it necessary to remove
+several dark streaks on his face and hands. But in spite of his dirt
+and rags there was something about Dick that was attractive. It was
+easy to see that if he had been clean and well dressed he would
+have been decidedly good-looking. Some of his companions were sly,
+and their faces inspired distrust; but Dick had a frank,
+straight-forward manner that made him a favorite.
+
+Dick's business hours had commenced. He had no office to open. His
+little blacking-box was ready for use, and he looked sharply in
+the faces of all who passed, addressing each with, "Shine yer
+boots, sir?"
+
+"How much?" asked a gentleman on his way to his office.
+
+"Ten cents," said Dick, dropping his box, and sinking upon his knees
+on the sidewalk, flourishing his brush with the air of one skilled
+in his profession.
+
+"Ten cents! Isn't that a little steep?"
+
+"Well, you know 'taint all clear profit," said Dick, who had already
+set to work. "There's the _blacking_ costs something, and I have to
+get a new brush pretty often."
+
+"And you have a large rent too," said the gentleman quizzically,
+with a glance at a large hole in Dick's coat.
+
+"Yes, sir," said Dick, always ready to joke; "I have to pay such a
+big rent for my manshun up on Fifth Avenoo, that I can't afford to
+take less than ten cents a shine. I'll give you a bully shine, sir."
+
+"Be quick about it, for I am in a hurry. So your house is on Fifth
+Avenue, is it?"
+
+"It isn't anywhere else," said Dick, and Dick spoke the truth there.
+
+"What tailor do you patronize?" asked the gentleman,
+surveying Dick's attire.
+
+"Would you like to go to the same one?" asked Dick, shrewdly.
+
+"Well, no; it strikes me that he didn't give you a very good fit."
+
+"This coat once belonged to General Washington," said Dick,
+comically. "He wore it all through the Revolution, and it got torn
+some, 'cause he fit so hard. When he died he told his widder to give
+it to some smart young feller that hadn't got none of his own; so
+she gave it to me. But if you'd like it, sir, to remember General
+Washington by, I'll let you have it reasonable."
+
+"Thank you, but I wouldn't want to deprive you of it. And did your
+pants come from General Washington too?"
+
+"No, they was a gift from Lewis Napoleon. Lewis had outgrown 'em
+and sent 'em to me,--he's bigger than me, and that's why they
+don't fit."
+
+"It seems you have distinguished friends. Now, my lad, I suppose you
+would like your money."
+
+"I shouldn't have any objection," said Dick.
+
+"I believe," said the gentleman, examining his pocket-book, "I
+haven't got anything short of twenty-five cents. Have you got
+any change?"
+
+"Not a cent," said Dick. "All my money's invested in the Erie
+Railroad."
+
+"That's unfortunate."
+
+"Shall I get the money changed, sir?"
+
+"I can't wait; I've got to meet an appointment immediately. I'll
+hand you twenty-five cents, and you can leave the change at my
+office any time during the day."
+
+"All right, sir. Where is it?"
+
+"No. 125 Fulton Street. Shall you remember?"
+
+"Yes, sir. What name?"
+
+"Greyson,--office on second floor."
+
+"All right, sir; I'll bring it."
+
+"I wonder whether the little scamp will prove honest," said Mr.
+Greyson to himself, as he walked away. "If he does, I'll give him
+my custom regularly. If he don't as is most likely, I shan't mind
+the loss of fifteen cents."
+
+Mr. Greyson didn't understand Dick. Our ragged hero wasn't a model
+boy in all respects. I am afraid he swore sometimes, and now and
+then he played tricks upon unsophisticated boys from the country,
+or gave a wrong direction to honest old gentlemen unused to the
+city. A clergyman in search of the Cooper Institute he once directed
+to the Tombs Prison, and, following him unobserved, was highly
+delighted when the unsuspicious stranger walked up the front steps
+of the great stone building on Centre Street, and tried to obtain
+admission.
+
+"I guess he wouldn't want to stay long if he did get in," thought
+Ragged Dick, hitching up his pants. "Leastways I shouldn't. They're
+so precious glad to see you that they won't let you go, but board
+you gratooitous, and never send in no bills."
+
+Another of Dick's faults was his extravagance. Being always
+wide-awake and ready for business, he earned enough to have
+supported him comfortably and respectably. There were not a few
+young clerks who employed Dick from time to time in his professional
+capacity, who scarcely earned as much as he, greatly as their style
+and dress exceeded his. But Dick was careless of his earnings. Where
+they went he could hardly have told himself. However much he managed
+to earn during the day, all was generally spent before morning. He
+was fond of going to the Old Bowery Theatre, and to Tony Pastor's,
+and if he had any money left afterwards, he would invite some of
+his friends in somewhere to have an oyster-stew; so it seldom
+happened that he commenced the day with a penny.
+
+Then I am sorry to add that Dick had formed the habit of smoking.
+This cost him considerable, for Dick was rather fastidious about his
+cigars, and wouldn't smoke the cheapest. Besides, having a liberal
+nature, he was generally ready to treat his companions. But of
+course the expense was the smallest objection. No boy of fourteen
+can smoke without being affected injuriously. Men are frequently
+injured by smoking, and boys always. But large numbers of the
+newsboys and boot-blacks form the habit. Exposed to the cold and wet
+they find that it warms them up, and the self-indulgence grows upon
+them. It is not uncommon to see a little boy, too young to be out
+of his mother's sight, smoking with all the apparent satisfaction
+of a veteran smoker.
+
+There was another way in which Dick sometimes lost money. There was
+a noted gambling-house on Baxter Street, which in the evening was
+sometimes crowded with these juvenile gamesters, who staked their
+hard earnings, generally losing of course, and refreshing themselves
+from time to time with a vile mixture of liquor at two cents a
+glass. Sometimes Dick strayed in here, and played with the rest.
+
+I have mentioned Dick's faults and defects, because I want it
+understood, to begin with, that I don't consider him a model boy.
+But there were some good points about him nevertheless. He was above
+doing anything mean or dishonorable. He would not steal, or cheat,
+or impose upon younger boys, but was frank and straight-forward,
+manly and self-reliant. His nature was a noble one, and had saved
+him from all mean faults. I hope my young readers will like him as
+I do, without being blind to his faults. Perhaps, although he was
+only a boot-black, they may find something in him to imitate.
+
+And now, having fairly introduced Ragged Dick to my young readers,
+I must refer them to the next chapter for his further adventures.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+JOHNNY NOLAN
+
+
+After Dick had finished polishing Mr. Greyson's boots he was
+fortunate enough to secure three other customers, two of them
+reporters in the Tribune establishment, which occupies the corner
+of Spruce Street and Printing House Square.
+
+When Dick had got through with his last customer the City Hall clock
+indicated eight o'clock. He had been up an hour, and hard at work,
+and naturally began to think of breakfast. He went up to the head
+of Spruce Street, and turned into Nassau. Two blocks further, and he
+reached Ann Street. On this street was a small, cheap restaurant,
+where for five cents Dick could get a cup of coffee, and for ten
+cents more, a plate of beefsteak with a plate of bread thrown in.
+These Dick ordered, and sat down at a table.
+
+It was a small apartment with a few plain tables unprovided with
+cloths, for the class of customers who patronized it were not very
+particular. Our hero's breakfast was soon before him. Neither the
+coffee nor the steak were as good as can be bought at Delmonico's;
+but then it is very doubtful whether, in the present state of his
+wardrobe, Dick would have been received at that aristocratic
+restaurant, even if his means had admitted of paying the high
+prices there charged.
+
+Dick had scarcely been served when he espied a boy about his own
+size standing at the door, looking wistfully into the restaurant.
+This was Johnny Nolan, a boy of fourteen, who was engaged in the
+same profession as Ragged Dick. His wardrobe was in very much the
+same condition as Dick's.
+
+"Had your breakfast, Johnny?" inquired Dick, cutting off a piece of
+steak.
+
+"No."
+
+"Come in, then. Here's room for you."
+
+"I aint got no money," said Johnny, looking a little enviously at
+his more fortunate friend.
+
+"Haven't you had any shines?"
+
+"Yes, I had one, but I shan't get any pay till to-morrow."
+
+"Are you hungry?"
+
+"Try me, and see."
+
+"Come in. I'll stand treat this morning."
+
+Johnny Nolan was nowise slow to accept this invitation, and was soon
+seated beside Dick.
+
+"What'll you have, Johnny?"
+
+"Same as you."
+
+"Cup o' coffee and beefsteak," ordered Dick.
+
+These were promptly brought, and Johnny attacked them vigorously.
+
+Now, in the boot-blacking business, as well as in higher avocations,
+the same rule prevails, that energy and industry are rewarded, and
+indolence suffers. Dick was energetic and on the alert for business,
+but Johnny the reverse. The consequence was that Dick earned
+probably three times as much as the other.
+
+"How do you like it?" asked Dick, surveying Johnny's attacks upon
+the steak with evident complacency.
+
+"It's hunky."
+
+I don't believe "hunky" is to be found in either Webster's or
+Worcester's big dictionary; but boys will readily understand what
+it means.
+
+"Do you come here often?" asked Johnny.
+
+"Most every day. You'd better come too."
+
+"I can't afford it."
+
+"Well, you'd ought to, then," said Dick. "What do you do I'd
+like to know?"
+
+"I don't get near as much as you, Dick."
+
+"Well you might if you tried. I keep my eyes open,--that's the way
+I get jobs. You're lazy, that's what's the matter."
+
+Johnny did not see fit to reply to this charge. Probably he felt the
+justice of it, and preferred to proceed with the breakfast, which he
+enjoyed the more as it cost him nothing.
+
+Breakfast over, Dick walked up to the desk, and settled the bill.
+Then, followed by Johnny, he went out into the street.
+
+"Where are you going, Johnny?"
+
+"Up to Mr. Taylor's, on Spruce Street, to see if he don't want a
+shine."
+
+"Do you work for him reg'lar?"
+
+"Yes. Him and his partner wants a shine most every day. Where are
+you goin'?"
+
+"Down front of the Astor House. I guess I'll find some customers
+there."
+
+At this moment Johnny started, and, dodging into an entry way, hid
+behind the door, considerably to Dick's surprise.
+
+"What's the matter now?" asked our hero.
+
+"Has he gone?" asked Johnny, his voice betraying anxiety.
+
+"Who gone, I'd like to know?"
+
+"That man in the brown coat."
+
+"What of him. You aint scared of him, are you?"
+
+"Yes, he got me a place once."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Ever so far off."
+
+"What if he did?"
+
+"I ran away."
+
+"Didn't you like it?"
+
+"No, I had to get up too early. It was on a farm, and I had to get
+up at five to take care of the cows. I like New York best."
+
+"Didn't they give you enough to eat?"
+
+"Oh, yes, plenty."
+
+"And you had a good bed?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then you'd better have stayed. You don't get either of them here.
+Where'd you sleep last night?"
+
+"Up an alley in an old wagon."
+
+"You had a better bed than that in the country, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes, it was as soft as--as cotton."
+
+Johnny had once slept on a bale of cotton, the recollection
+supplying him with a comparison.
+
+"Why didn't you stay?"
+
+"I felt lonely," said Johnny.
+
+Johnny could not exactly explain his feelings, but it is often the
+case that the young vagabond of the streets, though his food is
+uncertain, and his bed may be any old wagon or barrel that he is
+lucky enough to find unoccupied when night sets in, gets so attached
+to his precarious but independent mode of life, that he feels
+discontented in any other. He is accustomed to the noise and bustle
+and ever-varied life of the streets, and in the quiet scenes of the
+country misses the excitement in the midst of which he has always
+dwelt.
+
+Johnny had but one tie to bind him to the city. He had a father
+living, but he might as well have been without one. Mr. Nolan was
+a confirmed drunkard, and spent the greater part of his wages for
+liquor. His potations made him ugly, and inflamed a temper never
+very sweet, working him up sometimes to such a pitch of rage that
+Johnny's life was in danger. Some months before, he had thrown a
+flat-iron at his son's head with such terrific force that unless
+Johnny had dodged he would not have lived long enough to obtain a
+place in our story. He fled the house, and from that time had not
+dared to re-enter it. Somebody had given him a brush and box of
+blacking, and he had set up in business on his own account. But he
+had not energy enough to succeed, as has already been stated, and
+I am afraid the poor boy had met with many hardships, and suffered
+more than once from cold and hunger. Dick had befriended him more
+than once, and often given him a breakfast or dinner, as the case
+might be.
+
+"How'd you get away?" asked Dick, with some curiosity. "Did
+you walk?"
+
+"No, I rode on the cars."
+
+"Where'd you get your money? I hope you didn't steal it."
+
+"I didn't have none."
+
+"What did you do, then?"
+
+"I got up about three o'clock, and walked to Albany."
+
+"Where's that?" asked Dick, whose ideas on the subject of geography
+were rather vague.
+
+"Up the river."
+
+"How far?"
+
+"About a thousand miles," said Johnny, whose conceptions of distance
+were equally vague.
+
+"Go ahead. What did you do then?"
+
+"I hid on top of a freight car, and came all the way without their
+seeing me.* That man in the brown coat was the man that got me the
+place, and I'm afraid he'd want to send me back."
+
+* A fact.
+
+
+"Well," said Dick, reflectively, "I dunno as I'd like to live in the
+country. I couldn't go to Tony Pastor's or the Old Bowery. There
+wouldn't be no place to spend my evenings. But I say, it's tough in
+winter, Johnny, 'specially when your overcoat's at the tailor's, an'
+likely to stay there."
+
+"That's so, Dick. But I must be goin', or Mr. Taylor'll get somebody
+else to shine his boots."
+
+Johnny walked back to Nassau Street, while Dick kept on his way to
+Broadway.
+
+"That boy," soliloquized Dick, as Johnny took his departure, "aint
+got no ambition. I'll bet he won't get five shines to-day. I'm glad
+I aint like him. I couldn't go to the theatre, nor buy no cigars,
+nor get half as much as I wanted to eat.--Shine yer boots, sir?"
+
+Dick always had an eye to business, and this remark was addressed to
+a young man, dressed in a stylish manner, who was swinging a jaunty
+cane.
+
+"I've had my boots blacked once already this morning, but this
+confounded mud has spoiled the shine."
+
+"I'll make 'em all right, sir, in a minute."
+
+"Go ahead, then."
+
+The boots were soon polished in Dick's best style, which proved very
+satisfactory, our hero being a proficient in the art.
+
+"I haven't got any change," said the young man, fumbling in his
+pocket, "but here's a bill you may run somewhere and get changed.
+I'll pay you five cents extra for your trouble."
+
+He handed Dick a two-dollar bill, which our hero took into a store
+close by.
+
+"Will you please change that, sir?" said Dick, walking up to the
+counter.
+
+The salesman to whom he proffered it took the bill, and, slightly
+glancing at it, exclaimed angrily, "Be off, you young vagabond, or
+I'll have you arrested."
+
+"What's the row?"
+
+"You've offered me a counterfeit bill."
+
+"I didn't know it," said Dick.
+
+"Don't tell me. Be off, or I'll have you arrested."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+DICK MAKES A PROPOSITION
+
+
+Though Dick was somewhat startled at discovering that the bill he
+had offered was counterfeit, he stood his ground bravely.
+
+"Clear out of this shop, you young vagabond," repeated the clerk.
+
+"Then give me back my bill."
+
+"That you may pass it again? No, sir, I shall do no such thing."
+
+"It doesn't belong to me," said Dick. "A gentleman that owes me for
+a shine gave it to me to change."
+
+"A likely story," said the clerk; but he seemed a little uneasy.
+
+"I'll go and call him," said Dick.
+
+He went out, and found his late customer standing on the Astor House
+steps.
+
+"Well, youngster, have you brought back my change? You were a
+precious long time about it. I began to think you had cleared out
+with the money."
+
+"That aint my style," said Dick, proudly.
+
+"Then where's the change?"
+
+"I haven't got it."
+
+"Where's the bill then?"
+
+"I haven't got that either."
+
+"You young rascal!"
+
+"Hold on a minute, mister," said Dick, "and I'll tell you all about
+it. The man what took the bill said it wasn't good, and kept it."
+
+"The bill was perfectly good. So he kept it, did he? I'll go with
+you to the store, and see whether he won't give it back to me."
+
+Dick led the way, and the gentleman followed him into the store.
+At the reappearance of Dick in such company, the clerk flushed a
+little, and looked nervous. He fancied that he could browbeat a
+ragged boot-black, but with a gentleman he saw that it would be a
+different matter. He did not seem to notice the newcomers, but
+began to replace some goods on the shelves.
+
+Now, said the young man, "point out the clerk that has my money."
+
+"That's him," said Dick, pointing out the clerk.
+
+The gentleman walked up to the counter.
+
+"I will trouble you," he said a little haughtily, "for a bill which
+that boy offered you, and which you still hold in your possession."
+
+"It was a bad bill," said the clerk, his cheek flushing, and his
+manner nervous.
+
+"It was no such thing. I require you to produce it, and let the
+matter be decided."
+
+The clerk fumbled in his vest-pocket, and drew out a bad-looking
+bill.
+
+"This is a bad bill, but it is not the one I gave the boy."
+
+"It is the one he gave me."
+
+The young man looked doubtful.
+
+"Boy," he said to Dick, "is this the bill you gave to be changed?"
+
+"No, it isn't."
+
+"You lie, you young rascal!" exclaimed the clerk, who began to find
+himself in a tight place, and could not see the way out.
+
+This scene naturally attracted the attention of all in the store,
+and the proprietor walked up from the lower end, where he had been
+busy.
+
+"What's all this, Mr. Hatch?" he demanded.
+
+"That boy," said the clerk, "came in and asked change for a bad
+bill. I kept the bill, and told him to clear out. Now he wants it
+again to pass on somebody else."
+
+"Show the bill."
+
+The merchant looked at it. "Yes, that's a bad bill," he said. "There
+is no doubt about that."
+
+"But it is not the one the boy offered," said Dick's patron.
+"It is one of the same denomination, but on a different bank."
+
+"Do you remember what bank it was on?"
+
+"It was on the Merchants' Bank of Boston."
+
+"Are you sure of it?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"Perhaps the boy kept it and offered the other."
+
+"You may search me if you want to," said Dick, indignantly.
+
+"He doesn't look as if he was likely to have any extra bills. I
+suspect that your clerk pocketed the good bill, and has substituted
+the counterfeit note. It is a nice little scheme of his for making
+money."
+
+"I haven't seen any bill on the Merchants' Bank," said the clerk,
+doggedly.
+
+"You had better feel in your pockets."
+
+"This matter must be investigated," said the merchant, firmly. "If
+you have the bill, produce it."
+
+"I haven't got it," said the clerk; but he looked guilty
+notwithstanding.
+
+"I demand that he be searched," said Dick's patron.
+
+"I tell you I haven't got it."
+
+"Shall I send for a police officer, Mr. Hatch, or will you allow
+yourself to be searched quietly?" said the merchant.
+
+Alarmed at the threat implied in these words, the clerk put his hand
+into his vest-pocket, and drew out a two-dollar bill on the
+Merchants' Bank.
+
+"Is this your note?" asked the shopkeeper, showing it to the
+young man.
+
+"It is."
+
+"I must have made a mistake," faltered the clerk.
+
+"I shall not give you a chance to make such another mistake in my
+employ," said the merchant sternly. "You may go up to the desk and
+ask for what wages are due you. I shall have no further occasion for
+your services."
+
+"Now, youngster," said Dick's patron, as they went out of the store,
+after he had finally got the bill changed. "I must pay you something
+extra for your trouble. Here's fifty cents."
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Dick. "You're very kind. Don't you want some
+more bills changed?"
+
+"Not to-day," said he with a smile. "It's too expensive."
+
+"I'm in luck," thought our hero complacently. "I guess I'll go to
+Barnum's to-night, and see the bearded lady, the eight-foot giant,
+the two-foot dwarf, and the other curiosities, too numerous to
+mention."
+
+Dick shouldered his box and walked up as far as the Astor House. He
+took his station on the sidewalk, and began to look about him.
+
+Just behind him were two persons,--one, a gentleman of fifty; the
+other, a boy of thirteen or fourteen. They were speaking together,
+and Dick had no difficulty in hearing what was said.
+
+"I am sorry, Frank, that I can't go about, and show you some of the
+sights of New York, but I shall be full of business to-day. It is
+your first visit to the city, too."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"There's a good deal worth seeing here. But I'm afraid you'll have
+to wait to next time. You can go out and walk by yourself, but don't
+venture too far, or you will get lost."
+
+Frank looked disappointed.
+
+"I wish Tom Miles knew I was here," he said. "He would go around
+with me."
+
+"Where does he live?"
+
+"Somewhere up town, I believe."
+
+"Then, unfortunately, he is not available. If you would rather go
+with me than stay here, you can, but as I shall be most of the time
+in merchants'-counting-rooms, I am afraid it would not be very
+interesting."
+
+"I think," said Frank, after a little hesitation, "that I will go
+off by myself. I won't go very far, and if I lose my way, I will
+inquire for the Astor House."
+
+"Yes, anybody will direct you here. Very well, Frank, I am sorry I
+can't do better for you."
+
+"Oh, never mind, uncle, I shall be amused in walking around, and
+looking at the shop-windows. There will be a great deal to see."
+
+Now Dick had listened to all this conversation. Being an
+enterprising young man, he thought he saw a chance for a
+speculation, and determined to avail himself of it.
+
+Accordingly he stepped up to the two just as Frank's uncle was about
+leaving, and said, "I know all about the city, sir; I'll show him
+around, if you want me to."
+
+The gentleman looked a little curiously at the ragged figure before
+him.
+
+"So you are a city boy, are you?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said Dick, "I've lived here ever since I was a baby."
+
+"And you know all about the public buildings, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And the Central Park?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I know my way all round."
+
+The gentleman looked thoughtful.
+
+"I don't know what to say, Frank," he remarked after a while. "It is
+rather a novel proposal. He isn't exactly the sort of guide I would
+have picked out for you. Still he looks honest. He has an open face,
+and I think can be depended upon."
+
+"I wish he wasn't so ragged and dirty," said Frank, who felt a
+little shy about being seen with such a companion.
+
+"I'm afraid you haven't washed your face this morning," said Mr.
+Whitney, for that was the gentleman's name.
+
+"They didn't have no wash-bowls at the hotel where I stopped," said
+Dick.
+
+"What hotel did you stop at?"
+
+"The Box Hotel."
+
+"The Box Hotel?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I slept in a box on Spruce Street."
+
+Frank surveyed Dick curiously.
+
+"How did you like it?" he asked.
+
+"I slept bully."
+
+"Suppose it had rained."
+
+"Then I'd have wet my best clothes," said Dick.
+
+"Are these all the clothes you have?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+Mr. Whitney spoke a few words to Frank, who seemed pleased with the
+suggestion.
+
+"Follow me, my lad," he said.
+
+Dick in some surprise obeyed orders, following Mr. Whitney and Frank
+into the hotel, past the office, to the foot of the staircase. Here
+a servant of the hotel stopped Dick, but Mr. Whitney explained that
+he had something for him to do, and he was allowed to proceed.
+
+They entered a long entry, and finally paused before a door. This
+being opened a pleasant chamber was disclosed.
+
+"Come in, my lad," said Mr. Whitney.
+
+Dick and Frank entered.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+DICK'S NEW SUIT
+
+
+"Now," said Mr. Whitney to Dick, "my nephew here is on his way to a
+boarding-school. He has a suit of clothes in his trunk about half
+worn. He is willing to give them to you. I think they will look
+better than those you have on."
+
+Dick was so astonished that he hardly knew what to say. Presents
+were something that he knew very little about, never having received
+any to his knowledge. That so large a gift should be made to him by
+a stranger seemed very wonderful.
+
+The clothes were brought out, and turned out to be a neat gray suit.
+
+"Before you put them on, my lad, you must wash yourself. Clean
+clothes and a dirty skin don't go very well together. Frank, you may
+attend to him. I am obliged to go at once. Have you got as much
+money as you require?"
+
+"Yes, uncle."
+
+"One more word, my lad," said Mr. Whitney, addressing Dick; "I may
+be rash in trusting a boy of whom I know nothing, but I like your
+looks, and I think you will prove a proper guide for my nephew."
+
+"Yes, I will, sir," said Dick, earnestly. "Honor bright!"
+
+"Very well. A pleasant time to you."
+
+The process of cleansing commenced. To tell the truth Dick needed
+it, and the sensation of cleanliness he found both new and pleasant.
+Frank added to his gift a shirt, stockings, and an old pair of
+shoes. "I am sorry I haven't any cap," said he.
+
+"I've got one," said Dick.
+
+"It isn't so new as it might be," said Frank, surveying an old felt
+hat, which had once been black, but was now dingy, with a large hole
+in the top and a portion of the rim torn off.
+
+"No," said Dick; "my grandfather used to wear it when he was a boy,
+and I've kep' it ever since out of respect for his memory. But I'll
+get a new one now. I can buy one cheap on Chatham Street."
+
+"Is that near here?"
+
+"Only five minutes' walk."
+
+"Then we can get one on the way."
+
+When Dick was dressed in his new attire, with his face and hands
+clean, and his hair brushed, it was difficult to imagine that he was
+the same boy.
+
+He now looked quite handsome, and might readily have been taken for
+a young gentleman, except that his hands were red and grimy.
+
+"Look at yourself," said Frank, leading him before the mirror.
+
+"By gracious!" said Dick, starting back in astonishment, "that isn't
+me, is it?"
+
+"Don't you know yourself?" asked Frank, smiling.
+
+"It reminds me of Cinderella," said Dick, "when she was changed into
+a fairy princess. I see it one night at Barnum's. What'll Johnny
+Nolan say when he sees me? He won't dare to speak to such a young
+swell as I be now. Aint it rich?" and Dick burst into a loud laugh.
+His fancy was tickled by the anticipation of his friend's surprise.
+Then the thought of the valuable gifts he had revived occurred to
+him, and he looked gratefully at Frank.
+
+"You're a brick," he said.
+
+"A what?"
+
+"A brick! You're a jolly good fellow to give me such a present."
+
+"You're quite welcome, Dick," said Frank, kindly. "I'm better off
+than you are, and I can spare the clothes just as well as not. You
+must have a new hat though. But that we can get when we go out. The
+old clothes you can make into a bundle."
+
+"Wait a minute till I get my handkercher," and Dick pulled from the
+pocket of the pants a dirty rag, which might have been white once,
+though it did not look like it, and had apparently once formed a
+part of a sheet or shirt.
+
+"You mustn't carry that," said Frank.
+
+"But I've got a cold," said Dick.
+
+"Oh, I don't mean you to go without a handkerchief. I'll give you
+one."
+
+Frank opened his trunk and pulled out two, which he gave to Dick.
+
+"I wonder if I aint dreamin'," said Dick, once more surveying
+himself doubtfully in the glass. "I'm afraid I'm dreamin', and shall
+wake up in a barrel, as I did night afore last."
+
+"Shall I pinch you so you can wake here?" asked Frank, playfully.
+
+"Yes," said Dick, seriously, "I wish you would."
+
+He pulled up the sleeve of his jacket, and Frank pinched him pretty
+hard, so that Dick winced.
+
+"Yes, I guess I'm awake," said Dick; "you've got a pair of nippers,
+you have. But what shall I do with my brush and blacking?" he asked.
+
+"You can leave them here till we come back," said Frank. "They will
+be safe."
+
+"Hold on a minute," said Dick, surveying Frank's boots with a
+professional eye, "you aint got a good shine on them boots. I'll
+make 'em shine so you can see your face in 'em."
+
+And he was as good as his word.
+
+"Thank you," said Frank; "now you had better brush your own shoes."
+
+This had not occurred to Dick, for in general the professional
+boot-black considers his blacking too valuable to expend on his
+own shoes or boots, if he is fortunate enough to possess a pair.
+
+The two boys now went downstairs together. They met the same servant
+who had spoken to Dick a few minutes before, but there was no
+recognition.
+
+"He don't know me," said Dick. "He thinks I'm a young swell like
+you."
+
+"What's a swell?"
+
+"Oh, a feller that wears nobby clothes like you."
+
+"And you, too, Dick."
+
+"Yes," said Dick, "who'd ever have thought as I should have turned
+into a swell?"
+
+They had now got out on Broadway, and were slowly walking along the
+west side by the Park, when who should Dick see in front of him, but
+Johnny Nolan?
+
+Instantly Dick was seized with a fancy for witnessing Johnny's
+amazement at his change in appearance. He stole up behind him, and
+struck him on the back.
+
+"Hallo, Johnny, how many shines have you had?"
+
+Johnny turned round expecting to see Dick, whose voice he
+recognized, but his astonished eyes rested on a nicely dressed
+boy (the hat alone excepted) who looked indeed like Dick, but
+so transformed in dress that it was difficult to be sure of
+his identity.
+
+"What luck, Johnny?" repeated Dick.
+
+Johnny surveyed him from head to foot in great bewilderment.
+
+"Who be you?" he said.
+
+"Well, that's a good one," laughed Dick; "so you don't know Dick?"
+
+"Where'd you get all them clothes?" asked Johnny. "Have you been
+stealin'?"
+
+"Say that again, and I'll lick you. No, I've lent my clothes to a
+young feller as was goin' to a party, and didn't have none fit to
+wear, and so I put on my second-best for a change."
+
+Without deigning any further explanation, Dick went off, followed
+by the astonished gaze of Johnny Nolan, who could not quite make up
+his mind whether the neat-looking boy he had been talking with was
+really Ragged Dick or not.
+
+In order to reach Chatham Street it was necessary to cross Broadway.
+This was easier proposed than done. There is always such a throng
+of omnibuses, drays, carriages, and vehicles of all kinds in the
+neighborhood of the Astor House, that the crossing is formidable
+to one who is not used to it. Dick made nothing of it, dodging in
+and out among the horses and wagons with perfect self-possession.
+Reaching the opposite sidewalk, he looked back, and found that
+Frank had retreated in dismay, and that the width of the street
+was between them.
+
+"Come across!" called out Dick.
+
+"I don't see any chance," said Frank, looking anxiously at the
+prospect before him. "I'm afraid of being run over."
+
+"If you are, you can sue 'em for damages," said Dick.
+
+Finally Frank got safely over after several narrow escapes, as he
+considered them.
+
+"Is it always so crowded?" he asked.
+
+"A good deal worse sometimes," said Dick. "I knowed a young man once
+who waited six hours for a chance to cross, and at last got run
+over by an omnibus, leaving a widder and a large family of orphan
+children. His widder, a beautiful young woman, was obliged to start
+a peanut and apple stand. There she is now."
+
+"Where?"
+
+Dick pointed to a hideous old woman, of large proportions, wearing a
+bonnet of immense size, who presided over an apple-stand close by.
+
+Frank laughed.
+
+"If that is the case," he said, "I think I will patronize her."
+
+"Leave it to me," said Dick, winking.
+
+He advanced gravely to the apple-stand, and said, "Old lady,
+have you paid your taxes?"
+
+The astonished woman opened her eyes.
+
+"I'm a gov'ment officer," said Dick, "sent by the mayor to collect
+your taxes. I'll take it in apples just to oblige. That big red one
+will about pay what you're owin' to the gov'ment."
+
+"I don't know nothing about no taxes," said the old woman, in
+bewilderment.
+
+"Then," said Dick, "I'll let you off this time. Give us two of
+your best apples, and my friend here, the President of the Common
+Council, will pay you."
+
+Frank smiling, paid three cents apiece for the apples, and they
+sauntered on, Dick remarking, "If these apples aint good, old lady,
+we'll return 'em, and get our money back." This would have been
+rather difficult in his case, as the apple was already half
+consumed.
+
+Chatham Street, where they wished to go, being on the East side, the
+two boys crossed the Park. This is an enclosure of about ten acres,
+which years ago was covered with a green sward, but is now a great
+thoroughfare for pedestrians and contains several important public
+buildings. Dick pointed out the City Hall, the Hall of Records, and
+the Rotunda. The former is a white building of large size, and
+surmounted by a cupola.
+
+"That's where the mayor's office is," said Dick. "Him and me
+are very good friends. I once blacked his boots by partic'lar
+appointment. That's the way I pay my city taxes."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+CHATHAM STREET AND BROADWAY
+
+
+They were soon in Chatham Street, walking between rows of ready-made
+clothing shops, many of which had half their stock in trade exposed
+on the sidewalk. The proprietors of these establishments stood at
+the doors, watching attentively the passersby, extending urgent
+invitations to any who even glanced at the goods to enter.
+
+"Walk in, young gentlemen," said a stout man, at the entrance of one
+shop.
+
+"No, I thank you," replied Dick, "as the fly said to the spider."
+
+"We're selling off at less than cost."
+
+"Of course you be. That's where you makes your money," said Dick.
+"There aint nobody of any enterprise that pretends to make any
+profit on his goods."
+
+The Chatham Street trader looked after our hero as if he didn't
+quite comprehend him; but Dick, without waiting for a reply, passed
+on with his companion.
+
+In some of the shops auctions seemed to be going on.
+
+"I am only offered two dollars, gentlemen, for this elegant pair
+of doeskin pants, made of the very best of cloth. It's a frightful
+sacrifice. Who'll give an eighth? Thank you, sir. Only seventeen
+shillings! Why the cloth cost more by the yard!"
+
+This speaker was standing on a little platform haranguing to three
+men, holding in his hand meanwhile a pair of pants very loose in
+the legs, and presenting a cheap Bowery look.
+
+Frank and Dick paused before the shop door, and finally saw them
+knocked down to rather a verdant-looking individual at three
+dollars.
+
+"Clothes seem to be pretty cheap here," said Frank.
+
+"Yes, but Baxter Street is the cheapest place."
+
+"Is it?"
+
+"Yes. Johnny Nolan got a whole rig-out there last week, for a
+dollar,--coat, cap, vest, pants, and shoes. They was very good
+measure, too, like my best clothes that I took off to oblige you."
+
+"I shall know where to come for clothes next time," said Frank,
+laughing. "I had no idea the city was so much cheaper than the
+country. I suppose the Baxter Street tailors are fashionable?"
+
+"In course they are. Me and Horace Greeley always go there for
+clothes. When Horace gets a new suit, I always have one made just
+like it; but I can't go the white hat. It aint becomin' to my
+style of beauty."
+
+A little farther on a man was standing out on the sidewalk,
+distributing small printed handbills. One was handed to Frank,
+which he read as follows,--
+
+"GRAND CLOSING-OUT SALE!--A variety of Beautiful and Costly
+Articles for Sale, at a Dollar apiece. Unparalleled Inducements!
+Walk in, Gentlemen!"
+
+"Whereabouts is this sale?" asked Frank.
+
+"In here, young gentlemen," said a black-whiskered individual,
+who appeared suddenly on the scene. "Walk in."
+
+"Shall we go in, Dick?"
+
+"It's a swindlin' shop," said Dick, in a low voice. "I've been
+there. That man's a regular cheat. He's seen me before, but he
+don't know me coz of my clothes."
+
+"Step in and see the articles," said the man, persuasively. "You
+needn't buy, you know."
+
+"Are all the articles worth more'n a dollar?" asked Dick.
+
+"Yes," said the other, "and some worth a great deal more."
+
+"Such as what?"
+
+"Well, there's a silver pitcher worth twenty dollars."
+
+"And you sell it for a dollar. That's very kind of you," said Dick,
+innocently.
+
+"Walk in, and you'll understand it."
+
+"No, I guess not," said Dick. "My servants is so dishonest that I
+wouldn't like to trust 'em with a silver pitcher. Come along, Frank.
+I hope you'll succeed in your charitable enterprise of supplyin'
+the public with silver pitchers at nineteen dollars less than they
+are worth."
+
+"How does he manage, Dick?" asked Frank, as they went on.
+
+"All his articles are numbered, and he makes you pay a dollar, and
+then shakes some dice, and whatever the figgers come to, is the
+number of the article you draw. Most of 'em aint worth sixpence."
+
+A hat and cap store being close at hand, Dick and Frank went in. For
+seventy-five cents, which Frank insisted on paying, Dick succeeded
+in getting quite a neat-looking cap, which corresponded much better
+with his appearance than the one he had on. The last, not being
+considered worth keeping, Dick dropped on the sidewalk, from which,
+on looking back, he saw it picked up by a brother boot-black who
+appeared to consider it better than his own.
+
+They retraced their steps and went up Chambers Street to Broadway.
+At the corner of Broadway and Chambers Street is a large white
+marble warehouse, which attracted Frank's attention.
+
+"What building is that?" he asked, with interest.
+
+"That belongs to my friend A. T. Stewart," said Dick. "It's the
+biggest store on Broadway.* If I ever retire from boot-blackin', and
+go into mercantile pursuits, I may buy him out, or build another
+store that'll take the shine off this one."
+
+* Mr. Stewart's Tenth Street store was not open at the time
+Dick spoke.
+
+
+"Were you ever in the store?" asked Frank.
+
+"No," said Dick; "but I'm intimate with one of Stewart's partners.
+He is a cash boy, and does nothing but take money all day."
+
+"A very agreeable employment," said Frank, laughing.
+
+"Yes," said Dick, "I'd like to be in it."
+
+The boys crossed to the West side of Broadway, and walked slowly up
+the street. To Frank it was a very interesting spectacle. Accustomed
+to the quiet of the country, there was something fascinating in the
+crowds of people thronging the sidewalks, and the great variety of
+vehicles constantly passing and repassing in the street. Then again
+the shop-windows with their multifarious contents interested and
+amused him, and he was constantly checking Dick to look in at some
+well-stocked window.
+
+"I don't see how so many shopkeepers can find people enough to buy
+of them," he said. "We haven't got but two stores in our village,
+and Broadway seems to be full of them."
+
+"Yes," said Dick; "and its pretty much the same in the avenoos,
+'specially the Third, Sixth, and Eighth avenoos. The Bowery, too,
+is a great place for shoppin'. There everybody sells cheaper'n
+anybody else, and nobody pretends to make no profit on their goods."
+
+"Where's Barnum's Museum?" asked Frank.
+
+"Oh, that's down nearly opposite the Astor House," said Dick.
+"Didn't you see a great building with lots of flags?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, that's Barnum's.* That's where the Happy Family live, and the
+lions, and bears, and curiosities generally. It's a tip-top place.
+Haven't you ever been there? It's most as good as the Old Bowery,
+only the plays isn't quite so excitin'."
+
+* Since destroyed by fire, and rebuilt farther up Broadway,
+and again burned down in February.
+
+
+"I'll go if I get time," said Frank. "There is a boy at home who
+came to New York a month ago, and went to Barnum's, and has been
+talking about it ever since, so I suppose it must be worth seeing."
+
+"They've got a great play at the Old Bowery now," pursued Dick.
+"'Tis called the 'Demon of the Danube.' The Demon falls in love with
+a young woman, and drags her by the hair up to the top of a steep
+rock where his castle stands."
+
+"That's a queer way of showing his love," said Frank, laughing.
+
+"She didn't want to go with him, you know, but was in love with
+another chap. When he heard about his girl bein' carried off, he
+felt awful, and swore an oath not to rest till he had got her free.
+Well, at last he got into the castle by some underground passage,
+and he and the Demon had a fight. Oh, it was bully seein' 'em roll
+round on the stage, cuttin' and slashin' at each other."
+
+"And which got the best of it?"
+
+"At first the Demon seemed to be ahead, but at last the young Baron
+got him down, and struck a dagger into his heart, sayin', 'Die,
+false and perjured villain! The dogs shall feast upon thy carcass!'
+and then the Demon give an awful howl and died. Then the Baron
+seized his body, and threw it over the precipice."
+
+"It seems to me the actor who plays the Demon ought to get extra
+pay, if he has to be treated that way."
+
+"That's so," said Dick; "but I guess he's used to it. It seems to
+agree with his constitution."
+
+"What building is that?" asked Frank, pointing to a structure
+several rods back from the street, with a large yard in front. It
+was an unusual sight for Broadway, all the other buildings in that
+neighborhood being even with the street.
+
+"That is the New York Hospital," said Dick. "They're a rich
+institution, and take care of sick people on very reasonable terms."
+
+"Did you ever go in there?"
+
+"Yes," said Dick; "there was a friend of mine, Johnny Mullen, he was
+a newsboy, got run over by a omnibus as he was crossin' Broadway
+down near Park Place. He was carried to the Hospital, and me and
+some of his friends paid his board while he was there. It was only
+three dollars a week, which was very cheap, considerin' all the care
+they took of him. I got leave to come and see him while he was here.
+Everything looked so nice and comfortable, that I thought a little
+of coaxin' a omnibus driver to run over me, so I might go there
+too."
+
+"Did your friend have to have his leg cut off?" asked Frank,
+interested.
+
+"No," said Dick; "though there was a young student there that was
+very anxious to have it cut off; but it wasn't done, and Johnny is
+around the streets as well as ever."
+
+While this conversation was going on they reached No. 365, at the
+corner of Franklin Street.*
+
+* Now the office of the Merchants' Union Express Company.
+
+
+"That's Taylor's Saloon," said Dick. "When I come into a fortun' I
+shall take my meals there reg'lar."
+
+"I have heard of it very often," said Frank. "It is said to be very
+elegant. Suppose we go in and take an ice-cream. It will give us a
+chance to see it to better advantage."
+
+"Thank you," said Dick; "I think that's the most agreeable way of
+seein' the place myself."
+
+The boys entered, and found themselves in a spacious and elegant
+saloon, resplendent with gilding, and adorned on all sides by costly
+mirrors. They sat down to a small table with a marble top, and Frank
+gave the order.
+
+"It reminds me of Aladdin's palace," said Frank, looking about him.
+
+"Does it?" said Dick; "he must have had plenty of money."
+
+"He had an old lamp, which he had only to rub, when the Slave of the
+Lamp would appear, and do whatever he wanted."
+
+"That must have been a valooable lamp. I'd be willin' to give all my
+Erie shares for it."
+
+There was a tall, gaunt individual at the next table, who apparently
+heard this last remark of Dick's. Turning towards our hero, he said,
+"May I inquire, young man, whether you are largely interested in
+this Erie Railroad?"
+
+"I haven't got no property except what's invested in Erie," said
+Dick, with a comical side-glance at Frank.
+
+"Indeed! I suppose the investment was made by your guardian."
+
+"No," said Dick; "I manage my property myself."
+
+"And I presume your dividends have not been large?"
+
+"Why, no," said Dick; "you're about right there. They haven't."
+
+"As I supposed. It's poor stock. Now, my young friend, I can
+recommend a much better investment, which will yield you a large
+annual income. I am agent of the Excelsior Copper Mining Company,
+which possesses one of the most productive mines in the world. It's
+sure to yield fifty per cent. on the investment. Now, all you have
+to do is to sell out your Erie shares, and invest in our stock, and
+I'll insure you a fortune in three years. How many shares did you
+say you had?"
+
+"I didn't say, that I remember," said Dick. "Your offer is very kind
+and obligin', and as soon as I get time I'll see about it."
+
+"I hope you will," said the stranger. "Permit me to give you my
+card. 'Samuel Snap, No. -- Wall Street.' I shall be most happy to
+receive a call from you, and exhibit the maps of our mine. I should
+be glad to have you mention the matter also to your friends. I am
+confident you could do no greater service than to induce them to
+embark in our enterprise."
+
+"Very good," said Dick.
+
+Here the stranger left the table, and walked up to the desk to
+settle his bill.
+
+"You see what it is to be a man of fortun', Frank," said Dick, "and
+wear good clothes. I wonder what that chap'll say when he sees me
+blackin' boots to-morrow in the street?"
+
+"Perhaps you earn your money more honorably than he does, after
+all," said Frank. "Some of these mining companies are nothing but
+swindles, got up to cheat people out of their money."
+
+"He's welcome to all he gets out of me," said Dick.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+UP BROADWAY TO MADISON SQUARE
+
+
+As the boys pursued their way up Broadway, Dick pointed out the
+prominent hotels and places of amusement. Frank was particularly
+struck with the imposing fronts of the St. Nicholas and Metropolitan
+Hotels, the former of white marble, the latter of a subdued brown
+hue, but not less elegant in its internal appointments. He was not
+surprised to be informed that each of these splendid structures cost
+with the furnishing not far from a million dollars.
+
+At Eighth Street Dick turned to the right, and pointed out the
+Clinton Hall Building now occupied by the Mercantile Library,
+comprising at that time over fifty thousand volumes.*
+
+* Now not far from one hundred thousand.
+
+
+A little farther on they came to a large building standing by itself
+just at the opening of Third and Fourth Avenues, and with one side
+on each.
+
+"What is that building?" asked Frank.
+
+"That's the Cooper Institute," said Dick; "built by Mr. Cooper,
+a particular friend of mine. Me and Peter Cooper used to go to
+school together."
+
+"What is there inside?" asked Frank.
+
+"There's a hall for public meetin's and lectures in the basement,
+and a readin' room and a picture gallery up above," said Dick.
+
+Directly opposite Cooper Institute, Frank saw a very large building
+of brick, covering about an acre of ground.
+
+"Is that a hotel?" he asked.
+
+"No," said Dick; "that's the Bible House. It's the place where they
+make Bibles. I was in there once,--saw a big pile of 'em."
+
+"Did you ever read the Bible?" asked Frank, who had some idea of the
+neglected state of Dick's education.
+
+"No," said Dick; "I've heard it's a good book, but I never read one.
+I aint much on readin'. It makes my head ache."
+
+"I suppose you can't read very fast."
+
+"I can read the little words pretty well, but the big ones is what
+stick me."
+
+"If I lived in the city, you might come every evening to me, and I
+would teach you."
+
+"Would you take so much trouble about me?" asked Dick, earnestly.
+
+"Certainly; I should like to see you getting on. There isn't much
+chance of that if you don't know how to read and write."
+
+"You're a good feller," said Dick, gratefully. "I wish you did live
+in New York. I'd like to know somethin'. Whereabouts do you live?"
+
+"About fifty miles off, in a town on the left bank of the Hudson.
+I wish you'd come up and see me sometime. I would like to have you
+come and stop two or three days."
+
+"Honor bright?"
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"Do you mean it?" asked Dick, incredulously.
+
+"Of course I do. Why shouldn't I?"
+
+"What would your folks say if they knowed you asked a boot-black to
+visit you?"
+
+"You are none the worse for being a boot-black, Dick."
+
+"I aint used to genteel society," said Dick. "I shouldn't know how
+to behave."
+
+"Then I could show you. You won't be a boot-black all your life, you
+know."
+
+"No," said Dick; "I'm goin' to knock off when I get to be ninety."
+
+"Before that, I hope," said Frank, smiling.
+
+"I really wish I could get somethin' else to do," said Dick,
+soberly. "I'd like to be a office boy, and learn business, and grow
+up 'spectable."
+
+"Why don't you try, and see if you can't get a place, Dick?"
+
+"Who'd take Ragged Dick?"
+
+"But you aint ragged now, Dick."
+
+"No," said Dick; "I look a little better than I did in my Washington
+coat and Louis Napoleon pants. But if I got in a office, they
+wouldn't give me more'n three dollars a week, and I couldn't live
+'spectable on that."
+
+"No, I suppose not," said Frank, thoughtfully. "But you would get
+more at the end of the first year."
+
+"Yes," said Dick; "but by that time I'd be nothin' but skin and
+bones."
+
+Frank laughed. "That reminds me," he said, "of the story of an
+Irishman, who, out of economy, thought he would teach his horse to
+feed on shavings. So he provided the horse with a pair of green
+spectacles which made the shavings look eatable. But unfortunately,
+just as the horse got learned, he up and died."
+
+"The hoss must have been a fine specimen of architectur' by the time
+he got through," remarked Dick.
+
+"Whereabouts are we now?" asked Frank, as they emerged from Fourth
+Avenue into Union Square.
+
+"That is Union Park," said Dick, pointing to a beautiful enclosure,
+in the centre of which was a pond, with a fountain playing.
+
+"Is that the statue of General Washington?" asked Frank, pointing to
+a bronze equestrian statue, on a granite pedestal.
+
+"Yes," said Dick; "he's growed some since he was President. If
+he'd been as tall as that when he fit in the Revolution, he'd have
+walloped the Britishers some, I reckon."
+
+Frank looked up at the statue, which is fourteen and a half feet
+high, and acknowledged the justice of Dick's remark.
+
+"How about the coat, Dick?" he asked. "Would it fit you?"
+
+"Well, it might be rather loose," said Dick, "I aint much more'n
+ten feet high with my boots off."
+
+"No, I should think not," said Frank, smiling. "You're a queer boy,
+Dick."
+
+"Well, I've been brought up queer. Some boys is born with a silver
+spoon in their mouth. Victoria's boys is born with a gold spoon, set
+with di'monds; but gold and silver was scarce when I was born, and
+mine was pewter."
+
+"Perhaps the gold and silver will come by and by, Dick. Did you ever
+hear of Dick Whittington?"
+
+"Never did. Was he a Ragged Dick?"
+
+"I shouldn't wonder if he was. At any rate he was very poor when he
+was a boy, but he didn't stay so. Before he died, he became Lord
+Mayor of London."
+
+"Did he?" asked Dick, looking interested. "How did he do it?"
+
+"Why, you see, a rich merchant took pity on him, and gave him a
+home in his own house, where he used to stay with the servants,
+being employed in little errands. One day the merchant noticed Dick
+picking up pins and needles that had been dropped, and asked him
+why he did it. Dick told him he was going to sell them when he got
+enough. The merchant was pleased with his saving disposition, and
+when soon after, he was going to send a vessel to foreign parts, he
+told Dick he might send anything he pleased in it, and it should
+be sold to his advantage. Now Dick had nothing in the world but a
+kitten which had been given him a short time before."
+
+"How much taxes did he have to pay on it?" asked Dick.
+
+"Not very high, probably. But having only the kitten, he concluded
+to send it along. After sailing a good many months, during which the
+kitten grew up to be a strong cat, the ship touched at an island
+never before known, which happened to be infested with rats and
+mice to such an extent that they worried everybody's life out, and
+even ransacked the king's palace. To make a long story short, the
+captain, seeing how matters stood, brought Dick's cat ashore,
+and she soon made the rats and mice scatter. The king was highly
+delighted when he saw what havoc she made among the rats and mice,
+and resolved to have her at any price. So he offered a great
+quantity of gold for her, which, of course, the captain was glad
+to accept. It was faithfully carried back to Dick, and laid the
+foundation of his fortune. He prospered as he grew up, and in time
+became a very rich merchant, respected by all, and before he died
+was elected Lord Mayor of London."
+
+"That's a pretty good story" said Dick; "but I don't believe all the
+cats in New York will ever make me mayor."
+
+"No, probably not, but you may rise in some other way. A good many
+distinguished men have once been poor boys. There's hope for you,
+Dick, if you'll try."
+
+"Nobody ever talked to me so before," said Dick. "They just called
+me Ragged Dick, and told me I'd grow up to be a vagabone (boys who
+are better educated need not be surprised at Dick's blunders) and
+come to the gallows."
+
+"Telling you so won't make it turn out so, Dick. If you'll try to
+be somebody, and grow up into a respectable member of society, you
+will. You may not become rich,--it isn't everybody that becomes
+rich, you know--but you can obtain a good position, and be
+respected."
+
+"I'll try," said Dick, earnestly. "I needn't have been Ragged Dick
+so long if I hadn't spent my money in goin' to the theatre, and
+treatin' boys to oyster-stews, and bettin' money on cards, and
+such like."
+
+"Have you lost money that way?"
+
+"Lots of it. One time I saved up five dollars to buy me a new
+rig-out, cos my best suit was all in rags, when Limpy Jim wanted
+me to play a game with him."
+
+"Limpy Jim?" said Frank, interrogatively.
+
+"Yes, he's lame; that's what makes us call him Limpy Jim."
+
+"I suppose you lost?"
+
+"Yes, I lost every penny, and had to sleep out, cos I hadn't a cent
+to pay for lodgin'. 'Twas a awful cold night, and I got most froze."
+
+"Wouldn't Jim let you have any of the money he had won to pay for a
+lodging?"
+
+"No; I axed him for five cents, but he wouldn't let me have it."
+
+"Can you get lodging for five cents?" asked Frank, in surprise.
+
+"Yes," said Dick, "but not at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. That's it
+right out there."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE POCKET-BOOK
+
+
+They had reached the junction of Broadway and of Fifth Avenue.
+Before them was a beautiful park of ten acres. On the left-hand side
+was a large marble building, presenting a fine appearance with its
+extensive white front. This was the building at which Dick pointed.
+
+"Is that the Fifth Avenue Hotel?" asked Frank. "I've heard of it
+often. My Uncle William always stops there when he comes to New
+York."
+
+"I once slept on the outside of it," said Dick. "They was very
+reasonable in their charges, and told me I might come again."
+
+"Perhaps sometime you'll be able to sleep inside," said Frank.
+
+"I guess that'll be when Queen Victoria goes to the Five Points
+to live."
+
+"It looks like a palace," said Frank. "The queen needn't be ashamed
+to live in such a beautiful building as that."
+
+Though Frank did not know it, one of the queen's palaces is far
+from being as fine a looking building as the Fifth Avenue Hotel.
+St. James' Palace is a very ugly-looking brick structure, and
+appears much more like a factory than like the home of royalty.
+There are few hotels in the world as fine-looking as this
+democratic institution.
+
+At that moment a gentleman passed them on the sidewalk, who looked
+back at Dick, as if his face seemed familiar.
+
+"I know that man," said Dick, after he had passed. "He's one of my
+customers."
+
+"What is his name?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"He looked back as if he thought he knew you."
+
+"He would have knowed me at once if it hadn't been for my new
+clothes," said Dick. "I don't look much like Ragged Dick now."
+
+"I suppose your face looked familiar."
+
+"All but the dirt," said Dick, laughing. "I don't always have the
+chance of washing my face and hands in the Astor House."
+
+"You told me," said Frank, "that there was a place where you could
+get lodging for five cents. Where's that?"
+
+"It's the News-boys' Lodgin' House, on Fulton Street," said Dick,
+"up over the 'Sun' office. It's a good place. I don't know what us
+boys would do without it. They give you supper for six cents, and
+a bed for five cents more."
+
+"I suppose some boys don't even have the five cents to pay,--do
+they?"
+
+"They'll trust the boys," said Dick. "But I don't like to get
+trusted. I'd be ashamed to get trusted for five cents, or ten
+either. One night I was comin' down Chatham Street, with fifty
+cents in my pocket. I was goin' to get a good oyster-stew, and then
+go to the lodgin' house; but somehow it slipped through a hole in
+my trowses-pocket, and I hadn't a cent left. If it had been summer
+I shouldn't have cared, but it's rather tough stayin' out winter
+nights."
+
+Frank, who had always possessed a good home of his own, found
+it hard to realize that the boy who was walking at his side had
+actually walked the streets in the cold without a home, or money
+to procure the common comfort of a bed.
+
+"What did you do?" he asked, his voice full of sympathy.
+
+"I went to the 'Times' office. I knowed one of the pressmen, and he
+let me set down in a corner, where I was warm, and I soon got fast
+asleep."
+
+"Why don't you get a room somewhere, and so always have a home to
+go to?"
+
+"I dunno," said Dick. "I never thought of it. P'rhaps I may hire a
+furnished house on Madison Square."
+
+"That's where Flora McFlimsey lived."
+
+"I don't know her," said Dick, who had never read the popular poem
+of which she is the heroine.
+
+While this conversation was going on, they had turned into
+Twenty-fifth Street, and had by this time reached Third Avenue.
+
+Just before entering it, their attention was drawn to the rather
+singular conduct of an individual in front of them. Stopping
+suddenly, he appeared to pick up something from the sidewalk,
+and then looked about him in rather a confused way.
+
+"I know his game," whispered Dick. "Come along and you'll see what
+it is."
+
+He hurried Frank forward until they overtook the man, who had come
+to a stand-still.
+
+"Have you found anything?" asked Dick.
+
+"Yes," said the man, "I've found this."
+
+He exhibited a wallet which seemed stuffed with bills, to judge from
+its plethoric appearance.
+
+"Whew!" exclaimed Dick; "you're in luck."
+
+"I suppose somebody has lost it," said the man, "and will offer a
+handsome reward."
+
+"Which you'll get."
+
+"Unfortunately I am obliged to take the next train to Boston. That's
+where I live. I haven't time to hunt up the owner."
+
+"Then I suppose you'll take the pocket-book with you," said Dick,
+with assumed simplicity.
+
+"I should like to leave it with some honest fellow who would see it
+returned to the owner," said the man, glancing at the boys.
+
+"I'm honest," said Dick.
+
+"I've no doubt of it," said the other. "Well, young man, "I'll make
+you an offer. You take the pocket-book--"
+
+"All right. Hand it over, then."
+
+"Wait a minute. There must be a large sum inside. I shouldn't wonder
+if there might be a thousand dollars. The owner will probably give
+you a hundred dollars reward."
+
+"Why don't you stay and get it?" asked Frank.
+
+"I would, only there is sickness in my family, and I must get home
+as soon as possible. Just give me twenty dollars, and I'll hand you
+the pocket-book, and let you make whatever you can out of it. Come,
+that's a good offer. What do you say?"
+
+Dick was well dressed, so that the other did not regard it as at all
+improbable that he might possess that sum. He was prepared, however,
+to let him have it for less, if necessary.
+
+"Twenty dollars is a good deal of money," said Dick, appearing to
+hesitate.
+
+"You'll get it back, and a good deal more," said the stranger,
+persuasively.
+
+"I don't know but I shall. What would you do, Frank?"
+
+"I don't know but I would," said Frank, "if you've got the money."
+He was not a little surprised to think that Dick had so much by him.
+
+"I don't know but I will," said Dick, after some irresolution. "I
+guess I won't lose much."
+
+"You can't lose anything," said the stranger briskly. "Only be
+quick, for I must be on my way to the cars. I am afraid I shall miss
+them now."
+
+Dick pulled out a bill from his pocket, and handed it to the
+stranger, receiving the pocket-book in return. At that moment a
+policeman turned the corner, and the stranger, hurriedly thrusting
+the bill into his pocket, without looking at it, made off with
+rapid steps.
+
+"What is there in the pocket-book, Dick?" asked Frank in some
+excitement. "I hope there's enough to pay you for the money you
+gave him."
+
+Dick laughed.
+
+"I'll risk that," said he.
+
+"But you gave him twenty dollars. That's a good deal of money."
+
+"If I had given him as much as that, I should deserve to be cheated
+out of it."
+
+"But you did,--didn't you?"
+
+"He thought so."
+
+"What was it, then?"
+
+"It was nothing but a dry-goods circular got up to imitate a
+bank-bill."
+
+Frank looked sober.
+
+"You ought not to have cheated him, Dick," he said, reproachfully.
+
+"Didn't he want to cheat me?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"What do you s'pose there is in that pocket-book?" asked Dick,
+holding it up.
+
+Frank surveyed its ample proportions, and answered sincerely enough,
+"Money, and a good deal of it."
+
+"There aint stamps enough in it to buy a oyster-stew," said Dick.
+"If you don't believe it, just look while I open it."
+
+So saying he opened the pocket-book, and showed Frank that it was
+stuffed out with pieces of blank paper, carefully folded up in the
+shape of bills. Frank, who was unused to city life, and had never
+heard anything of the "drop-game" looked amazed at this unexpected
+development.
+
+"I knowed how it was all the time," said Dick. "I guess I got the
+best of him there. This wallet's worth somethin'. I shall use it to
+keep my stiffkit's of Erie stock in, and all my other papers what
+aint of no use to anybody but the owner."
+
+"That's the kind of papers it's got in it now," said Frank, smiling.
+
+"That's so!" said Dick.
+
+"By hokey!" he exclaimed suddenly, "if there aint the old chap
+comin' back ag'in. He looks as if he'd heard bad news from his
+sick family."
+
+By this time the pocket-book dropper had come up.
+
+Approaching the boys, he said in an undertone to Dick, "Give me back
+that pocket-book, you young rascal!"
+
+"Beg your pardon, mister," said Dick, "but was you addressin' me?"
+
+"Yes, I was."
+
+"'Cause you called me by the wrong name. I've knowed some rascals,
+but I aint the honor to belong to the family."
+
+He looked significantly at the other as he spoke, which didn't
+improve the man's temper. Accustomed to swindle others, he did not
+fancy being practised upon in return.
+
+"Give me back that pocket-book," he repeated in a threatening voice.
+
+"Couldn't do it," said Dick, coolly. "I'm go'n' to restore it to
+the owner. The contents is so valooable that most likely the loss
+has made him sick, and he'll be likely to come down liberal to the
+honest finder."
+
+"You gave me a bogus bill," said the man.
+
+"It's what I use myself," said Dick.
+
+"You've swindled me."
+
+"I thought it was the other way."
+
+"None of your nonsense," said the man angrily. "If you don't give up
+that pocket-book, I'll call a policeman."
+
+"I wish you would," said Dick. "They'll know most likely whether
+it's Stewart or Astor that's lost the pocket-book, and I can get 'em
+to return it."
+
+The "dropper," whose object it was to recover the pocket-book, in
+order to try the same game on a more satisfactory customer, was
+irritated by Dick's refusal, and above all by the coolness he
+displayed. He resolved to make one more attempt.
+
+"Do you want to pass the night in the Tombs?" he asked.
+
+"Thank you for your very obligin' proposal," said Dick; "but it aint
+convenient to-day. Any other time, when you'd like to have me come
+and stop with you, I'm agreeable; but my two youngest children is
+down with the measles, and I expect I'll have to set up all night
+to take care of 'em. Is the Tombs, in gineral, a pleasant place of
+residence?"
+
+Dick asked this question with an air of so much earnestness that
+Frank could scarcely forbear laughing, though it is hardly necessary
+to say that the dropper was by no means so inclined.
+
+"You'll know sometime," he said, scowling.
+
+"I'll make you a fair offer" said Dick. "If I get more'n fifty
+dollars as a reward for my honesty, I'll divide with you. But I say,
+aint it most time to go back to your sick family in Boston?"
+
+Finding that nothing was to be made out of Dick, the man strode away
+with a muttered curse.
+
+"You were too smart for him, Dick," said Frank.
+
+"Yes," said Dick, "I aint knocked round the city streets all my life
+for nothin'."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+DICK'S EARLY HISTORY
+
+
+"Have you always lived in New York, Dick?" asked Frank, after
+a pause.
+
+"Ever since I can remember."
+
+"I wish you'd tell me a little about yourself. Have you got
+any father or mother?"
+
+"I aint got no mother. She died when I wasn't but three years old.
+My father went to sea; but he went off before mother died, and
+nothin' was ever heard of him. I expect he got wrecked, or died
+at sea."
+
+"And what became of you when your mother died?"
+
+"The folks she boarded with took care of me, but they was poor, and
+they couldn't do much. When I was seven the woman died, and her
+husband went out West, and then I had to scratch for myself."
+
+"At seven years old!" exclaimed Frank, in amazement.
+
+"Yes," said Dick, "I was a little feller to take care of myself,
+but," he continued with pardonable pride, "I did it."
+
+"What could you do?"
+
+"Sometimes one thing, and sometimes another," said Dick. "I changed
+my business accordin' as I had to. Sometimes I was a newsboy, and
+diffused intelligence among the masses, as I heard somebody say once
+in a big speech he made in the Park. Them was the times when Horace
+Greeley and James Gordon Bennett made money."
+
+"Through your enterprise?" suggested Frank.
+
+"Yes," said Dick; "but I give it up after a while."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Well, they didn't always put news enough in their papers, and
+people wouldn't buy 'em as fast as I wanted 'em to. So one mornin'
+I was stuck on a lot of Heralds, and I thought I'd make a sensation.
+So I called out 'GREAT NEWS! QUEEN VICTORIA ASSASSINATED!' All my
+Heralds went off like hot cakes, and I went off, too, but one of
+the gentlemen what got sold remembered me, and said he'd have me
+took up, and that's what made me change my business."
+
+"That wasn't right, Dick," said Frank.
+
+"I know it," said Dick; "but lots of boys does it."
+
+"That don't make it any better."
+
+"No," said Dick, "I was sort of ashamed at the time, 'specially
+about one poor old gentleman,--a Englishman he was. He couldn't
+help cryin' to think the queen was dead, and his hands shook when
+he handed me the money for the paper."
+
+"What did you do next?"
+
+"I went into the match business," said Dick; "but it was small sales
+and small profits. Most of the people I called on had just laid in
+a stock, and didn't want to buy. So one cold night, when I hadn't
+money enough to pay for a lodgin', I burned the last of my matches
+to keep me from freezin'. But it cost too much to get warm that way,
+and I couldn't keep it up."
+
+"You've seen hard times, Dick," said Frank, compassionately.
+
+"Yes," said Dick, "I've knowed what it was to be hungry and cold,
+with nothin' to eat or to warm me; but there's one thing I never
+could do," he added, proudly.
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"I never stole," said Dick. "It's mean and I wouldn't do it."
+
+"Were you ever tempted to?"
+
+"Lots of times. Once I had been goin' round all day, and hadn't sold
+any matches, except three cents' worth early in the mornin'. With
+that I bought an apple, thinkin' I should get some more bimeby. When
+evenin' come I was awful hungry. I went into a baker's just to look
+at the bread. It made me feel kind o' good just to look at the bread
+and cakes, and I thought maybe they would give me some. I asked 'em
+wouldn't they give me a loaf, and take their pay in matches. But
+they said they'd got enough matches to last three months; so there
+wasn't any chance for a trade. While I was standin' at the stove
+warmin' me, the baker went into a back room, and I felt so hungry I
+thought I would take just one loaf, and go off with it. There was
+such a big pile I don't think he'd have known it."
+
+"But you didn't do it?"
+
+"No, I didn't and I was glad of it, for when the man came in ag'in,
+he said he wanted some one to carry some cake to a lady in St.
+Mark's Place. His boy was sick, and he hadn't no one to send; so he
+told me he'd give me ten cents if I would go. My business wasn't
+very pressin' just then, so I went, and when I come back, I took my
+pay in bread and cakes. Didn't they taste good, though?"
+
+"So you didn't stay long in the match business, Dick?"
+
+"No, I couldn't sell enough to make it pay. Then there was some
+folks that wanted me to sell cheaper to them; so I couldn't make any
+profit. There was one old lady--she was rich, too, for she lived in
+a big brick house--beat me down so, that I didn't make no profit at
+all; but she wouldn't buy without, and I hadn't sold none that day;
+so I let her have them. I don't see why rich folks should be so hard
+upon a poor boy that wants to make a livin'."
+
+"There's a good deal of meanness in the world, I'm afraid, Dick."
+
+"If everybody was like you and your uncle," said Dick, "there would
+be some chance for poor people. If I was rich I'd try to help 'em
+along."
+
+"Perhaps you will be rich sometime, Dick."
+
+Dick shook his head.
+
+"I'm afraid all my wallets will be like this," said Dick, indicating
+the one he had received from the dropper, "and will be full of
+papers what aint of no use to anybody except the owner."
+
+"That depends very much on yourself, Dick," said Frank. "Stewart
+wasn't always rich, you know."
+
+"Wasn't he?"
+
+"When he first came to New York as a young man he was a teacher, and
+teachers are not generally very rich. At last he went into business,
+starting in a small way, and worked his way up by degrees. But there
+was one thing he determined in the beginning: that he would be
+strictly honorable in all his dealings, and never overreach any one
+for the sake of making money. If there was a chance for him, Dick,
+there is a chance for you."
+
+"He knowed enough to be a teacher, and I'm awful ignorant,"
+said Dick.
+
+"But you needn't stay so."
+
+"How can I help it?"
+
+"Can't you learn at school?"
+
+"I can't go to school 'cause I've got my livin' to earn. It wouldn't
+do me much good if I learned to read and write, and just as I'd got
+learned I starved to death."
+
+"But are there no night-schools?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why don't you go? I suppose you don't work in the evenings."
+
+"I never cared much about it," said Dick, "and that's the truth. But
+since I've got to talkin' with you, I think more about it. I guess
+I'll begin to go."
+
+"I wish you would, Dick. You'll make a smart man if you only get a
+little education."
+
+"Do you think so?" asked Dick, doubtfully.
+
+"I know so. A boy who has earned his own living since he was seven
+years old must have something in him. I feel very much interested in
+you, Dick. You've had a hard time of it so far in life, but I think
+better times are in store. I want you to do well, and I feel sure
+you can if you only try."
+
+"You're a good fellow," said Dick, gratefully. "I'm afraid I'm a
+pretty rough customer, but I aint as bad as some. I mean to turn
+over a new leaf, and try to grow up 'spectable."
+
+"There've been a great many boys begin as low down as you, Dick,
+that have grown up respectable and honored. But they had to work
+pretty hard for it."
+
+"I'm willin' to work hard," said Dick.
+
+"And you must not only work hard, but work in the right way."
+
+"What's the right way?"
+
+"You began in the right way when you determined never to steal, or
+do anything mean or dishonorable, however strongly tempted to do so.
+That will make people have confidence in you when they come to know
+you. But, in order to succeed well, you must manage to get as good
+an education as you can. Until you do, you cannot get a position in
+an office or counting-room, even to run errands."
+
+"That's so," said Dick, soberly. "I never thought how awful ignorant
+I was till now."
+
+"That can be remedied with perseverance," said Frank. "A year will
+do a great deal for you."
+
+"I'll go to work and see what I can do," said Dick, energetically.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+A SCENE IN A THIRD AVENUE CAR
+
+
+The boys had turned into Third Avenue, a long street, which,
+commencing just below the Cooper Institute, runs out to Harlem. A
+man came out of a side street, uttering at intervals a monotonous
+cry which sounded like "glass puddin'."
+
+"Glass pudding!" repeated Frank, looking in surprised wonder at
+Dick. "What does he mean?"
+
+"Perhaps you'd like some," said Dick.
+
+"I never heard of it before."
+
+"Suppose you ask him what he charges for his puddin'."
+
+Frank looked more narrowly at the man, and soon concluded that he
+was a glazier.
+
+"Oh, I understand," he said. "He means 'glass put in.'"
+
+Frank's mistake was not a singular one. The monotonous cry of these
+men certainly sounds more like "glass puddin'," than the words they
+intend to utter.
+
+"Now," said Dick, "where shall we go?"
+
+"I should like to see Central Park," said Frank. "Is it far off?"
+
+"It is about a mile and a half from here," said Dick. "This is
+Twenty-ninth Street, and the Park begins at Fifty-ninth Street."
+
+It may be explained, for the benefit of readers who have never
+visited New York, that about a mile from the City Hall the
+cross-streets begin to be numbered in regular order. There is a
+continuous line of houses as far as One Hundred and Thirtieth
+Street, where may be found the terminus of the Harlem line of
+horse-cars. When the entire island is laid out and settled, probably
+the numbers will reach two hundred or more. Central Park, which lies
+between Fifty-ninth Street on the south, and One Hundred and Tenth
+Street on the north, is true to its name, occupying about the centre
+of the island. The distance between two parallel streets is called a
+block, and twenty blocks make a mile. It will therefore be seen that
+Dick was exactly right, when he said they were a mile and a half
+from Central Park.
+
+"That is too far to walk," said Frank.
+
+"'Twon't cost but six cents to ride," said Dick.
+
+"You mean in the horse-cars?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"All right then. We'll jump aboard the next car."
+
+The Third Avenue and Harlem line of horse-cars is better patronized
+than any other in New York, though not much can be said for the
+cars, which are usually dirty and overcrowded. Still, when it is
+considered that only seven cents are charged for the entire distance
+to Harlem, about seven miles from the City Hall, the fare can hardly
+be complained of. But of course most of the profit is made from the
+way-passengers who only ride a short distance.
+
+A car was at that moment approaching, but it seemed pretty crowded.
+
+"Shall we take that, or wait for another?" asked Frank.
+
+"The next'll most likely be as bad," said Dick.
+
+The boys accordingly signalled to the conductor to stop, and got
+on the front platform. They were obliged to stand up till the car
+reached Fortieth Street, when so many of the passengers had got off
+that they obtained seats.
+
+Frank sat down beside a middle-aged woman, or lady, as she probably
+called herself, whose sharp visage and thin lips did not seem to
+promise a very pleasant disposition. When the two gentlemen who sat
+beside her arose, she spread her skirts in the endeavor to fill two
+seats. Disregarding this, the boys sat down.
+
+"There aint room for two," she said, looking sourly at Frank.
+
+"There were two here before."
+
+"Well, there ought not to have been. Some people like to crowd in
+where they're not wanted."
+
+"And some like to take up a double allowance of room," thought
+Frank; but he did not say so. He saw that the woman had a bad
+temper, and thought it wisest to say nothing.
+
+Frank had never ridden up the city as far as this, and it was with
+much interest that he looked out of the car windows at the stores on
+either side. Third Avenue is a broad street, but in the character
+of its houses and stores it is quite inferior to Broadway, though
+better than some of the avenues further east. Fifth Avenue, as most
+of my readers already know, is the finest street in the city, being
+lined with splendid private residences, occupied by the wealthier
+classes. Many of the cross streets also boast houses which may be
+considered palaces, so elegant are they externally and internally.
+Frank caught glimpses of some of these as he was carried towards the
+Park.
+
+After the first conversation, already mentioned, with the lady at
+his side, he supposed he should have nothing further to do with her.
+But in this he was mistaken. While he was busy looking out of the
+car window, she plunged her hand into her pocket in search of her
+purse, which she was unable to find. Instantly she jumped to the
+conclusion that it had been stolen, and her suspicions fastened upon
+Frank, with whom she was already provoked for "crowding her," as she
+termed it.
+
+"Conductor!" she exclaimed in a sharp voice.
+
+"What's wanted, ma'am?" returned that functionary.
+
+"I want you to come here right off."
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"My purse has been stolen. There was four dollars and eighty cents
+in it. I know, because I counted it when I paid my fare."
+
+"Who stole it?"
+
+"That boy," she said pointing to Frank, who listened to the charge
+in the most intense astonishment. "He crowded in here on purpose to
+rob me, and I want you to search him right off."
+
+"That's a lie!" exclaimed Dick, indignantly.
+
+"Oh, you're in league with him, I dare say," said the woman
+spitefully. "You're as bad as he is, I'll be bound."
+
+"You're a nice female, you be!" said Dick, ironically.
+
+"Don't you dare to call me a female, sir," said the lady, furiously.
+
+"Why, you aint a man in disguise, be you?" said Dick.
+
+"You are very much mistaken, madam," said Frank, quietly. "The
+conductor may search me, if you desire it."
+
+A charge of theft, made in a crowded car, of course made quite a
+sensation. Cautious passengers instinctively put their hands on
+their pockets, to make sure that they, too, had not been robbed.
+As for Frank, his face flushed, and he felt very indignant that he
+should even be suspected of so mean a crime. He had been carefully
+brought up, and been taught to regard stealing as low and wicked.
+
+Dick, on the contrary, thought it a capital joke that such a charge
+should have been made against his companion. Though he had brought
+himself up, and known plenty of boys and men, too, who would steal,
+he had never done so himself. He thought it mean. But he could not
+be expected to regard it as Frank did. He had been too familiar with
+it in others to look upon it with horror.
+
+Meanwhile the passengers rather sided with the boys. Appearances go
+a great ways, and Frank did not look like a thief.
+
+"I think you must be mistaken, madam," said a gentleman sitting
+opposite. "The lad does not look as if he would steal."
+
+"You can't tell by looks," said the lady, sourly. "They're
+deceitful; villains are generally well dressed."
+
+"Be they?" said Dick. "You'd ought to see me with my Washington coat
+on. You'd think I was the biggest villain ever you saw."
+
+"I've no doubt you are," said the lady, scowling in the direction of
+our hero.
+
+"Thank you, ma'am," said Dick. "'Tisn't often I get such fine
+compliments."
+
+"None of your impudence," said the lady, wrathfully. "I believe
+you're the worst of the two."
+
+Meanwhile the car had been stopped.
+
+"How long are we going to stop here?" demanded a passenger,
+impatiently. "I'm in a hurry, if none of the rest of you are."
+
+"I want my pocket-book," said the lady, defiantly.
+
+"Well, ma'am, I haven't got it, and I don't see as it's doing you
+any good detaining us all here."
+
+"Conductor, will you call a policeman to search that young scamp?"
+continued the aggrieved lady. "You don't expect I'm going to lose my
+money, and do nothing about it."
+
+"I'll turn my pockets inside out if you want me to," said Frank,
+proudly. "There's no need of a policeman. The conductor, or any one
+else, may search me."
+
+"Well, youngster," said the conductor, "if the lady agrees, I'll
+search you."
+
+The lady signified her assent.
+
+Frank accordingly turned his pockets inside out, but nothing was
+revealed except his own porte-monnaie and a penknife.
+
+"Well, ma'am, are you satisfied?" asked the conductor.
+
+"No, I aint," said she, decidedly.
+
+"You don't think he's got it still?"
+
+"No, but he's passed it over to his confederate, that boy there
+that's so full of impudence."
+
+"That's me," said Dick, comically.
+
+"He confesses it," said the lady; "I want him searched."
+
+"All right," said Dick, "I'm ready for the operation, only, as I've
+got valooable property about me, be careful not to drop any of my
+Erie Bonds."
+
+The conductor's hand forthwith dove into Dick's pocket, and drew out
+a rusty jack-knife, a battered cent, about fifty cents in change,
+and the capacious pocket-book which he had received from the
+swindler who was anxious to get back to his sick family in Boston.
+
+"Is that yours, ma'am?" asked the conductor, holding up the wallet
+which excited some amazement, by its size, among the other
+passengers.
+
+"It seems to me you carry a large pocket-book for a young man of
+your age," said the conductor.
+
+"That's what I carry my cash and valooable papers in," said Dick.
+
+"I suppose that isn't yours, ma'am," said the conductor, turning to
+the lady.
+
+"No," said she, scornfully. "I wouldn't carry round such a great
+wallet as that. Most likely he's stolen it from somebody else."
+
+"What a prime detective you'd be!" said Dick. "P'rhaps you know who
+I took it from."
+
+"I don't know but my money's in it," said the lady, sharply.
+"Conductor, will you open that wallet, and see what there is in it?"
+
+"Don't disturb the valooable papers," said Dick, in a tone of
+pretended anxiety.
+
+The contents of the wallet excited some amusement among the
+passengers.
+
+"There don't seem to be much money here," said the conductor, taking
+out a roll of tissue paper cut out in the shape of bills, and rolled
+up.
+
+"No," said Dick. "Didn't I tell you them were papers of no valoo to
+anybody but the owner? If the lady'd like to borrow, I won't charge
+no interest."
+
+"Where is my money, then?" said the lady, in some discomfiture. "I
+shouldn't wonder if one of the young scamps had thrown it out of the
+window."
+
+"You'd better search your pocket once more," said the gentleman
+opposite. "I don't believe either of the boys is in fault. They
+don't look to me as if they would steal."
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Frank.
+
+The lady followed out the suggestion, and, plunging her hand once
+more into her pocket, drew out a small porte-monnaie. She hardly
+knew whether to be glad or sorry at this discovery. It placed her
+in rather an awkward position after the fuss she had made, and the
+detention to which she had subjected the passengers, now, as it
+proved, for nothing.
+
+"Is that the pocket-book you thought stolen?" asked the conductor.
+
+"Yes," said she, rather confusedly.
+
+"Then you've been keeping me waiting all this time for nothing," he
+said, sharply. "I wish you'd take care to be sure next time before
+you make such a disturbance for nothing. I've lost five minutes, and
+shall not be on time."
+
+"I can't help it," was the cross reply; "I didn't know it was in my
+pocket."
+
+"It seems to me you owe an apology to the boys you accused of a
+theft which they have not committed," said the gentleman opposite.
+
+"I shan't apologize to anybody," said the lady, whose temper was not
+of the best; "least of all to such whipper-snappers as they are."
+
+"Thank you, ma'am," said Dick, comically; "your handsome apology is
+accepted. It aint of no consequence, only I didn't like to expose
+the contents of my valooable pocket-book, for fear it might excite
+the envy of some of my poor neighbors."
+
+"You're a character," said the gentleman who had already spoken,
+with a smile.
+
+"A bad character!" muttered the lady.
+
+But it was quite evident that the sympathies of those present were
+against the lady, and on the side of the boys who had been falsely
+accused, while Dick's drollery had created considerable amusement.
+
+The cars had now reached Fifty-ninth Street, the southern boundary
+of the Park, and here our hero and his companion got off.
+
+"You'd better look out for pickpockets, my lad," said the conductor,
+pleasantly. "That big wallet of yours might prove a great
+temptation."
+
+"That's so," said Dick. "That's the misfortin' of being rich. Astor
+and me don't sleep much for fear of burglars breakin' in and robbin'
+us of our valooable treasures. Sometimes I think I'll give all my
+money to an Orphan Asylum, and take it out in board. I guess I'd
+make money by the operation."
+
+While Dick was speaking, the car rolled away, and the boys turned
+up Fifty-ninth Street, for two long blocks yet separated them from
+the Park.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+INTRODUCES A VICTIM OF MISPLACED CONFIDENCE
+
+
+"What a queer chap you are, Dick!" said Frank, laughing. "You always
+seem to be in good spirits."
+
+"No, I aint always. Sometimes I have the blues."
+
+"When?"
+
+"Well, once last winter it was awful cold, and there was big holes
+in my shoes, and my gloves and all my warm clothes was at the
+tailor's. I felt as if life was sort of tough, and I'd like it if
+some rich man would adopt me, and give me plenty to eat and drink
+and wear, without my havin' to look so sharp after it. Then agin'
+when I've seen boys with good homes, and fathers, and mothers, I've
+thought I'd like to have somebody to care for me."
+
+Dick's tone changed as he said this, from his usual levity, and
+there was a touch of sadness in it. Frank, blessed with a good home
+and indulgent parents, could not help pitying the friendless boy who
+had found life such up-hill work.
+
+"Don't say you have no one to care for you, Dick," he said, lightly
+laying his hand on Dick's shoulder. "I will care for you."
+
+"Will you?"
+
+"If you will let me."
+
+"I wish you would," said Dick, earnestly. "I'd like to feel that I
+have one friend who cares for me."
+
+Central Park was now before them, but it was far from presenting
+the appearance which it now exhibits. It had not been long since
+work had been commenced upon it, and it was still very rough and
+unfinished. A rough tract of land, two miles and a half from north
+to south, and a half a mile broad, very rocky in parts, was the
+material from which the Park Commissioners have made the present
+beautiful enclosure. There were no houses of good appearance near
+it, buildings being limited mainly to rude temporary huts used by
+the workmen who were employed in improving it. The time will
+undoubtedly come when the Park will be surrounded by elegant
+residences, and compare favorably in this respect with the most
+attractive parts of any city in the world. But at the time when
+Frank and Dick visited it, not much could be said in favor either
+of the Park or its neighborhood.
+
+"If this is Central Park," said Frank, who naturally felt
+disappointed, "I don't think much of it. My father's got a large
+pasture that is much nicer."
+
+"It'll look better some time," said Dick. "There aint much to see
+now but rocks. We will take a walk over it if you want to."
+
+"No," said Frank, "I've seen as much of it as I want to. Besides, I
+feel tired."
+
+"Then we'll go back. We can take the Sixth Avenue cars. They will
+bring us out at Vesey Street just beside the Astor House."
+
+"All right," said Frank. "That will be the best course. I hope," he
+added, laughing, "our agreeable lady friend won't be there. I don't
+care about being accused of _stealing_ again."
+
+"She was a tough one," said Dick. "Wouldn't she make a nice wife for
+a man that likes to live in hot water, and didn't mind bein' scalded
+two or three times a day?"
+
+"Yes, I think she'd just suit him. Is that the right car, Dick?"
+
+"Yes, jump in, and I'll follow."
+
+The Sixth Avenue is lined with stores, many of them of very good
+appearance, and would make a very respectable principal street for a
+good-sized city. But it is only one of several long business streets
+which run up the island, and illustrate the extent and importance of
+the city to which they belong.
+
+No incidents worth mentioning took place during their ride down
+town. In about three-quarters of an hour the boys got out of the car
+beside the Astor House.
+
+"Are you goin' in now, Frank?" asked Dick.
+
+"That depends upon whether you have anything else to show me."
+
+"Wouldn't you like to go to Wall Street?"
+
+"That's the street where there are so many bankers and brokers,--isn't
+it?"
+
+"Yes, I s'pose you aint afraid of bulls and bears,--are you?"
+
+"Bulls and bears?" repeated Frank, puzzled.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What are they?"
+
+"The bulls is what tries to make the stocks go up, and the bears is
+what try to growl 'em down."
+
+"Oh, I see. Yes, I'd like to go."
+
+Accordingly they walked down on the west side of Broadway as far as
+Trinity Church, and then, crossing, entered a street not very wide
+or very long, but of very great importance. The reader would be
+astonished if he could know the amount of money involved in the
+transactions which take place in a single day in this street. It
+would be found that although Broadway is much greater in length, and
+lined with stores, it stands second to Wall Street in this respect.
+
+"What is that large marble building?" asked Frank, pointing to a
+massive structure on the corner of Wall and Nassau Streets. It was
+in the form of a parallelogram, two hundred feet long by ninety
+wide, and about eighty feet in height, the ascent to the entrance
+being by eighteen granite steps.
+
+"That's the Custom House," said Dick.
+
+"It looks like pictures I've seen of the Parthenon at Athens," said
+Frank, meditatively.
+
+"Where's Athens?" asked Dick. "It aint in York State,--is it?"
+
+"Not the Athens I mean, at any rate. It is in Greece, and was a
+famous city two thousand years ago."
+
+"That's longer than I can remember," said Dick. "I can't remember
+distinctly more'n about a thousand years."
+
+"What a chap you are, Dick! Do you know if we can go in?"
+
+The boys ascertained, after a little inquiry, that they would be
+allowed to do so. They accordingly entered the Custom House and made
+their way up to the roof, from which they had a fine view of the
+harbor, the wharves crowded with shipping, and the neighboring
+shores of Long Island and New Jersey. Towards the north they looked
+down for many miles upon continuous lines of streets, and thousands
+of roofs, with here and there a church-spire rising above its
+neighbors. Dick had never before been up there, and he, as well as
+Frank, was interested in the grand view spread before them.
+
+At length they descended, and were going down the granite steps on
+the outside of the building, when they were addressed by a young
+man, whose appearance is worth describing.
+
+He was tall, and rather loosely put together, with small eyes and
+rather a prominent nose. His clothing had evidently not been
+furnished by a city tailor. He wore a blue coat with brass buttons,
+and pantaloons of rather scanty dimensions, which were several
+inches too short to cover his lower limbs. He held in his hand a
+piece of paper, and his countenance wore a look of mingled
+bewilderment and anxiety.
+
+"Be they a-payin' out money inside there?" he asked, indicating the
+interior by a motion of his hand.
+
+"I guess so," said Dick. "Are you a-goin' in for some?"
+
+"Wal, yes. I've got an order here for sixty dollars,--made a kind of
+speculation this morning."
+
+"How was it?" asked Frank.
+
+"Wal, you see I brought down some money to put in the bank, fifty
+dollars it was, and I hadn't justly made up my mind what bank to put
+it into, when a chap came up in a terrible hurry, and said it was
+very unfortunate, but the bank wasn't open, and he must have some
+money right off. He was obliged to go out of the city by the next
+train. I asked him how much he wanted. He said fifty dollars. I told
+him I'd got that, and he offered me a check on the bank for sixty,
+and I let him have it. I thought that was a pretty easy way to earn
+ten dollars, so I counted out the money and he went off. He told
+me I'd hear a bell ring when they began to pay out money. But I've
+waited most two hours, and I haint heard it yet. I'd ought to be
+goin', for I told dad I'd be home to-night. Do you think I can get
+the money now?"
+
+"Will you show me the check?" asked Frank, who had listened
+attentively to the countryman's story, and suspected that he had
+been made the victim of a swindler. It was made out upon the
+"Washington Bank," in the sum of sixty dollars, and was signed
+"Ephraim Smith."
+
+"Washington Bank!" repeated Frank. "Dick, is there such a bank in
+the city?"
+
+"Not as I knows on," said Dick. "Leastways I don't own any shares
+in it."
+
+"Aint this the Washington Bank?" asked the countryman, pointing to
+the building on the steps of which the three were now standing.
+
+"No, it's the Custom House."
+
+"And won't they give me any money for this?" asked the young man,
+the perspiration standing on his brow.
+
+"I am afraid the man who gave it to you was a swindler," said
+Frank, gently.
+
+"And won't I ever see my fifty dollars again?" asked the youth in
+agony.
+
+"I am afraid not."
+
+"What'll dad say?" ejaculated the miserable youth. "It makes me feel
+sick to think of it. I wish I had the feller here. I'd shake him out
+of his boots."
+
+"What did he look like? I'll call a policeman and you shall describe
+him. Perhaps in that way you can get track of your money."
+
+Dick called a policeman, who listened to the description, and
+recognized the operator as an experienced swindler. He assured the
+countryman that there was very little chance of his ever seeing his
+money again. The boys left the miserable youth loudly bewailing his
+bad luck, and proceeded on their way down the street.
+
+"He's a baby," said Dick, contemptuously. "He'd ought to know how to
+take care of himself and his money. A feller has to look sharp in
+this city, or he'll lose his eye-teeth before he knows it."
+
+"I suppose you never got swindled out of fifty dollars, Dick?"
+
+"No, I don't carry no such small bills. I wish I did," he added.
+
+"So do I, Dick. What's that building there at the end of the street?"
+
+"That's the Wall-Street Ferry to Brooklyn."
+
+"How long does it take to go across?"
+
+"Not more'n five minutes."
+
+"Suppose we just ride over and back."
+
+"All right!" said Dick. "It's rather expensive; but if you don't
+mind, I don't."
+
+"Why, how much does it cost?"
+
+"Two cents apiece."
+
+"I guess I can stand that. Let us go."
+
+They passed the gate, paying the fare to a man who stood at the
+entrance, and were soon on the ferry-boat, bound for Brooklyn.
+
+They had scarcely entered the boat, when Dick, grasping Frank
+by the arm, pointed to a man just outside of the gentlemen's cabin.
+
+"Do you see that man, Frank?" he inquired.
+
+"Yes, what of him?"
+
+"He's the man that cheated the country chap out of his fifty dollars."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+DICK AS A DETECTIVE
+
+
+Dick's ready identification of the rogue who had cheated the
+countryman, surprised Frank.
+
+"What makes you think it is he?" he asked.
+
+"Because I've seen him before, and I know he's up to them kind of
+tricks. When I heard how he looked, I was sure I knowed him."
+
+"Our recognizing him won't be of much use," said Frank. "It won't
+give back the countryman his money."
+
+"I don't know," said Dick, thoughtfully. "May be I can get it."
+
+"How?" asked Frank, incredulously.
+
+"Wait a minute, and you'll see."
+
+Dick left his companion, and went up to the man whom he suspected.
+
+"Ephraim Smith," said Dick, in a low voice.
+
+The man turned suddenly, and looked at Dick uneasily.
+
+"What did you say?" he asked.
+
+"I believe your name is Ephraim Smith," continued Dick.
+
+"You're mistaken," said the man, and was about to move off.
+
+"Stop a minute," said Dick. "Don't you keep your money in the
+Washington Bank?"
+
+"I don't know any such bank. I'm in a hurry, young man, and I can't
+stop to answer any foolish questions."
+
+The boat had by this time reached the Brooklyn pier, and Mr. Ephraim
+Smith seemed in a hurry to land.
+
+"Look here," said Dick, significantly; "you'd better not go on shore
+unless you want to jump into the arms of a policeman."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked the man, startled.
+
+"That little affair of yours is known to the police," said Dick;
+"about how you got fifty dollars out of a greenhorn on a false
+check, and it mayn't be safe for you to go ashore."
+
+"I don't know what you're talking about," said the swindler with
+affected boldness, though Dick could see that he was ill at ease.
+
+"Yes you do," said Dick. "There isn't but one thing to do. Just give
+me back that money, and I'll see that you're not touched. If you
+don't, I'll give you up to the first p'liceman we meet."
+
+Dick looked so determined, and spoke so confidently, that the other,
+overcome by his fears, no longer hesitated, but passed a roll of
+bills to Dick and hastily left the boat.
+
+All this Frank witnessed with great amazement, not understanding
+what influence Dick could have obtained over the swindler sufficient
+to compel restitution.
+
+"How did you do it?" he asked eagerly.
+
+"I told him I'd exert my influence with the president to have him
+tried by _habeas corpus_," said Dick.
+
+"And of course that frightened him. But tell me, without joking, how
+you managed."
+
+Dick gave a truthful account of what occurred, and then said, "Now
+we'll go back and carry the money."
+
+"Suppose we don't find the poor countryman?"
+
+"Then the p'lice will take care of it."
+
+They remained on board the boat, and in five minutes were again in
+New York. Going up Wall Street, they met the countryman a little
+distance from the Custom House. His face was marked with the traces
+of deep anguish; but in his case even grief could not subdue the
+cravings of appetite. He had purchased some cakes of one of the old
+women who spread out for the benefit of passers-by an array of
+apples and seed-cakes, and was munching them with melancholy
+satisfaction.
+
+"Hilloa!" said Dick. "Have you found your money?"
+
+"No," ejaculated the young man, with a convulsive gasp. "I shan't
+ever see it again. The mean skunk's cheated me out of it. Consarn
+his picter! It took me most six months to save it up. I was workin'
+for Deacon Pinkham in our place. Oh, I wish I'd never come to New
+York! The deacon, he told me he'd keep it for me; but I wanted to
+put it in the bank, and now it's all gone, boo hoo!"
+
+And the miserable youth, having despatched his cakes, was so
+overcome by the thought of his loss that he burst into tears.
+
+"I say," said Dick, "dry up, and see what I've got here."
+
+The youth no sooner saw the roll of bills, and comprehended that it
+was indeed his lost treasure, than from the depths of anguish he was
+exalted to the most ecstatic joy. He seized Dick's hand, and shook
+it with so much energy that our hero began to feel rather alarmed
+for its safety.
+
+"'Pears to me you take my arm for a pump-handle," said he. "Couldn't
+you show your gratitood some other way? It's just possible I may
+want to use my arm ag'in some time."
+
+The young man desisted, but invited Dick most cordially to come up
+and stop a week with him at his country home, assuring him that he
+wouldn't charge him anything for board.
+
+"All right!" said Dick. "If you don't mind I'll bring my wife along,
+too. She's delicate, and the country air might do her good."
+
+Jonathan stared at him in amazement, uncertain whether to credit the
+fact of his marriage. Dick walked on with Frank, leaving him in an
+apparent state of stupefaction, and it is possible that he has not
+yet settled the affair to his satisfaction.
+
+"Now," said Frank, "I think I'll go back to the Astor House. Uncle
+has probably got through his business and returned."
+
+"All right," said Dick.
+
+The two boys walked up to Broadway, just where the tall steeple of
+Trinity faces the street of bankers and brokers, and walked
+leisurely to the hotel. When they arrived at the Astor House, Dick
+said, "Good-by, Frank."
+
+"Not yet," said Frank; "I want you to come in with me."
+
+Dick followed his young patron up the steps. Frank went to the
+reading-room, where, as he had thought probable, he found his uncle
+already arrived, and reading a copy of "The Evening Post," which he
+had just purchased outside.
+
+"Well, boys," he said, looking up, "have you had a pleasant jaunt?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said Frank. "Dick's a capital guide."
+
+"So this is Dick," said Mr. Whitney, surveying him with a smile.
+"Upon my word, I should hardly have known him. I must congratulate
+him on his improved appearance."
+
+"Frank's been very kind to me," said Dick, who, rough street-boy as
+he was, had a heart easily touched by kindness, of which he had
+never experienced much. "He's a tip-top fellow."
+
+"I believe he is a good boy," said Mr. Whitney. "I hope, my lad, you
+will prosper and rise in the world. You know in this free country
+poverty in early life is no bar to a man's advancement. I haven't
+risen very high myself," he added, with a smile, "but have met with
+moderate success in life; yet there was a time when I was as poor as
+you."
+
+"Were you, sir," asked Dick, eagerly.
+
+"Yes, my boy, I have known the time I have been obliged to go
+without my dinner because I didn't have enough money to pay for it."
+
+"How did you get up in the world," asked Dick, anxiously.
+
+"I entered a printing-office as an apprentice, and worked for some
+years. Then my eyes gave out and I was obliged to give that up. Not
+knowing what else to do, I went into the country, and worked on a
+farm. After a while I was lucky enough to invent a machine, which
+has brought me in a great deal of money. But there was one thing I
+got while I was in the printing-office which I value more than
+money."
+
+"What was that, sir?"
+
+"A taste for reading and study. During my leisure hours I improved
+myself by study, and acquired a large part of the knowledge which I
+now possess. Indeed, it was one of my books that first put me on the
+track of the invention, which I afterwards made. So you see, my lad,
+that my studious habits paid me in money, as well as in another
+way."
+
+"I'm awful ignorant," said Dick, soberly.
+
+"But you are young, and, I judge, a smart boy. If you try to learn,
+you can, and if you ever expect to do anything in the world, you
+must know something of books."
+
+"I will," said Dick, resolutely. "I aint always goin' to black boots
+for a livin'."
+
+"All labor is respectable, my lad, and you have no cause to be
+ashamed of any honest business; yet when you can get something to do
+that promises better for your future prospects, I advise you to do
+so. Till then earn your living in the way you are accustomed to,
+avoid extravagance, and save up a little money if you can."
+
+"Thank you for your advice," said our hero. "There aint many that
+takes an interest in Ragged Dick."
+
+"So that's your name," said Mr. Whitney. "If I judge you rightly,
+it won't be long before you change it. Save your money, my lad,
+buy books, and determine to be somebody, and you may yet fill an
+honorable position."
+
+"I'll try," said Dick. "Good-night, sir."
+
+"Wait a minute, Dick," said Frank. "Your blacking-box and old
+clothes are upstairs. You may want them."
+
+"In course," said Dick. "I couldn't get along without my best
+clothes, and my stock in trade."
+
+"You may go up to the room with him, Frank," said Mr. Whitney. "The
+clerk will give you the key. I want to see you, Dick, before you
+go."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Dick.
+
+"Where are you going to sleep to-night, Dick?" asked Frank, as they
+went upstairs together.
+
+"P'r'aps at the Fifth Avenue Hotel--on the outside," said Dick.
+
+"Haven't you any place to sleep, then?"
+
+"I slept in a box, last night."
+
+"In a box?"
+
+"Yes, on Spruce Street."
+
+"Poor fellow!" said Frank, compassionately.
+
+"Oh, 'twas a bully bed--full of straw! I slept like a top."
+
+"Don't you earn enough to pay for a room, Dick?"
+
+"Yes," said Dick; "only I spend my money foolish, goin' to the Old
+Bowery, and Tony Pastor's, and sometimes gamblin' in Baxter Street."
+
+"You won't gamble any more,--will you, Dick?" said Frank, laying his
+hand persuasively on his companion's shoulder.
+
+"No, I won't," said Dick.
+
+"You'll promise?"
+
+"Yes, and I'll keep it. You're a good feller. I wish you was goin'
+to be in New York."
+
+"I am going to a boarding-school in Connecticut. The name of the
+town is Barnton. Will you write to me, Dick?"
+
+"My writing would look like hens' tracks," said our hero.
+
+"Never mind. I want you to write. When you write you can tell me how
+to direct, and I will send you a letter."
+
+"I wish you would," said Dick. "I wish I was more like you."
+
+"I hope you will make a much better boy, Dick. Now we'll go in to my
+uncle. He wishes to see you before you go."
+
+They went into the reading-room. Dick had wrapped up his
+blacking-brush in a newspaper with which Frank had supplied him,
+feeling that a guest of the Astor House should hardly be seen
+coming out of the hotel displaying such a professional sign.
+
+"Uncle, Dick's ready to go," said Frank.
+
+"Good-by, my lad," said Mr. Whitney. "I hope to hear good accounts
+of you sometime. Don't forget what I have told you. Remember that
+your future position depends mainly upon yourself, and that it will
+be high or low as you choose to make it."
+
+He held out his hand, in which was a five-dollar bill. Dick shrunk
+back.
+
+"I don't like to take it," he said. "I haven't earned it."
+
+"Perhaps not," said Mr. Whitney; "but I give it to you because I
+remember my own friendless youth. I hope it may be of service to
+you. Sometime when you are a prosperous man, you can repay it in the
+form of aid to some poor boy, who is struggling upward as you are
+now."
+
+"I will, sir," said Dick, manfully.
+
+He no longer refused the money, but took it gratefully, and, bidding
+Frank and his uncle good-by, went out into the street. A feeling of
+loneliness came over him as he left the presence of Frank, for whom
+he had formed a strong attachment in the few hours he had known him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+DICK HIRES A ROOM ON MOTT STREET
+
+
+Going out into the fresh air Dick felt the pangs of hunger. He
+accordingly went to a restaurant and got a substantial supper.
+Perhaps it was the new clothes he wore, which made him feel a
+little more aristocratic. At all events, instead of patronizing the
+cheap restaurant where he usually procured his meals, he went into
+the refectory attached to Lovejoy's Hotel, where the prices were
+higher and the company more select. In his ordinary dress, Dick
+would have been excluded, but now he had the appearance of a very
+respectable, gentlemanly boy, whose presence would not discredit
+any establishment. His orders were therefore received with attention
+by the waiter and in due time a good supper was placed before him.
+
+"I wish I could come here every day," thought Dick. "It seems kind
+o' nice and 'spectable, side of the other place. There's a gent at
+that other table that I've shined boots for more'n once. He don't
+know me in my new clothes. Guess he don't know his boot-black
+patronizes the same establishment."
+
+His supper over, Dick went up to the desk, and, presenting his
+check, tendered in payment his five-dollar bill, as if it were one
+of a large number which he possessed. Receiving back his change he
+went out into the street.
+
+Two questions now arose: How should he spend the evening, and where
+should he pass the night? Yesterday, with such a sum of money in his
+possession, he would have answered both questions readily. For the
+evening, he would have passed it at the Old Bowery, and gone to
+sleep in any out-of-the-way place that offered. But he had turned
+over a new leaf, or resolved to do so. He meant to save his money
+for some useful purpose,--to aid his advancement in the world. So he
+could not afford the theatre. Besides, with his new clothes, he was
+unwilling to pass the night out of doors.
+
+"I should spile 'em," he thought, "and that wouldn't pay."
+
+So he determined to hunt up a room which he could occupy regularly,
+and consider as his own, where he could sleep nights, instead of
+depending on boxes and old wagons for a chance shelter. This would
+be the first step towards respectability, and Dick determined to
+take it.
+
+He accordingly passed through the City Hall Park, and walked
+leisurely up Centre Street.
+
+He decided that it would hardly be advisable for him to seek
+lodgings in Fifth Avenue, although his present cash capital
+consisted of nearly five dollars in money, besides the valuable
+papers contained in his wallet. Besides, he had reason to doubt
+whether any in his line of business lived on that aristocratic
+street. He took his way to Mott Street, which is considerably less
+pretentious, and halted in front of a shabby brick lodging-house
+kept by a Mrs. Mooney, with whose son Tom, Dick was acquainted.
+
+Dick rang the bell, which sent back a shrill metallic response.
+
+The door was opened by a slatternly servant, who looked at him
+inquiringly, and not without curiosity. It must be remembered that
+Dick was well dressed, and that nothing in his appearance bespoke
+his occupation. Being naturally a good-looking boy, he might readily
+be mistaken for a gentleman's son.
+
+"Well, Queen Victoria," said Dick, "is your missus at home?"
+
+"My name's Bridget," said the girl.
+
+"Oh, indeed!" said Dick. "You looked so much like the queen's picter
+what she gave me last Christmas in exchange for mine, that I
+couldn't help calling you by her name."
+
+"Oh, go along wid ye!" said Bridget. "It's makin' fun ye are."
+
+"If you don't believe me," said Dick, gravely, "all you've got to do
+is to ask my partic'lar friend, the Duke of Newcastle."
+
+"Bridget!" called a shrill voice from the basement.
+
+"The missus is calling me," said Bridget, hurriedly. "I'll tell her
+ye want her."
+
+"All right!" said Dick.
+
+The servant descended into the lower regions, and in a short time a
+stout, red-faced woman appeared on the scene.
+
+"Well, sir, what's your wish?" she asked.
+
+"Have you got a room to let?" asked Dick.
+
+"Is it for yourself you ask?" questioned the woman, in some surprise.
+
+Dick answered in the affirmative.
+
+"I haven't got any very good rooms vacant. There's a small room in
+the third story."
+
+"I'd like to see it," said Dick.
+
+"I don't know as it would be good enough for you," said the woman,
+with a glance at Dick's clothes.
+
+"I aint very partic'lar about accommodations," said our hero. "I
+guess I'll look at it."
+
+Dick followed the landlady up two narrow stair-cases, uncarpeted
+and dirty, to the third landing, where he was ushered into a room
+about ten feet square. It could not be considered a very desirable
+apartment. It had once been covered with an oilcloth carpet, but
+this was now very ragged, and looked worse than none. There was a
+single bed in the corner, covered with an indiscriminate heap of
+bed-clothing, rumpled and not over-clean. There was a bureau, with
+the veneering scratched and in some parts stripped off, and a small
+glass, eight inches by ten, cracked across the middle; also two
+chairs in rather a disjointed condition. Judging from Dick's
+appearance, Mrs. Mooney thought he would turn from it in disdain.
+
+But it must be remembered that Dick's past experience had not been
+of a character to make him fastidious. In comparison with a box, or
+an empty wagon, even this little room seemed comfortable. He decided
+to hire it if the rent proved reasonable.
+
+"Well, what's the tax?" asked Dick.
+
+"I ought to have a dollar a week," said Mrs. Mooney, hesitatingly.
+
+"Say seventy-five cents, and I'll take it," said Dick.
+
+"Every week in advance?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, as times is hard, and I can't afford to keep it empty, you
+may have it. When will you come?"
+
+"To-night," said Dick.
+
+"It aint lookin' very neat. I don't know as I can fix it up
+to-night."
+
+"Well, I'll sleep here to-night, and you can fix it up to-morrow."
+
+"I hope you'll excuse the looks. I'm a lone woman, and my help is so
+shiftless, I have to look after everythilng myself; so I can't keep
+things as straight as I want to."
+
+"All right!" said Dick.
+
+"Can you pay me the first week in advance?" asked the landlady,
+cautiously.
+
+Dick responded by drawing seventy-five cents from his pocket, and
+placing it in her hand.
+
+"What's your business, sir, if I may inquire?" said Mrs. Mooney.
+
+"Oh, I'm professional!" said Dick.
+
+"Indeed!" said the landlady, who did not feel much enlightened by
+this answer.
+
+"How's Tom?" asked Dick.
+
+"Do you know my Tom?" said Mrs. Mooney in surprise. "He's gone to
+sea,--to Californy. He went last week."
+
+"Did he?" said Dick. "Yes, I knew him."
+
+Mrs. Mooney looked upon her new lodger with increased favor, on
+finding that he was acquainted with her son, who, by the way, was
+one of the worst young scamps in Mott Street, which is saying
+considerable.
+
+"I'll bring over my baggage from the Astor House this evening," said
+Dick in a tone of importance.
+
+"From the Astor House!" repeated Mrs. Mooney, in fresh amazement.
+
+"Yes, I've been stoppin' there a short time with some friends," said
+Dick.
+
+Mrs. Mooney might be excused for a little amazement at finding that
+a guest from the Astor House was about to become one of her
+lodgers--such transfers not being common.
+
+"Did you say you was purfessional?" she asked.
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said Dick, politely.
+
+"You aint a--a--" Mrs. Mooney paused, uncertain what conjecture to
+hazard.
+
+"Oh, no, nothing of the sort," said Dick, promptly. "How could you
+think so, Mrs. Mooney?"
+
+"No offence, sir," said the landlady, more perplexed than ever.
+
+"Certainly not," said our hero. "But you must excuse me now, Mrs.
+Mooney, as I have business of great importance to attend to."
+
+"You'll come round this evening?"
+
+Dick answered in the affirmative, and turned away.
+
+"I wonder what he is!" thought the landlady, following him with her
+eyes as he crossed the street. "He's got good clothes on, but he
+don't seem very particular about his room. Well; I've got all my
+rooms full now. That's one comfort."
+
+Dick felt more comfortable now that he had taken the decisive step
+of hiring a lodging, and paying a week's rent in advance. For seven
+nights he was sure of a shelter and a bed to sleep in. The thought
+was a pleasant one to our young vagrant, who hitherto had seldom
+known when he rose in the morning where he should find a
+resting-place at night.
+
+"I must bring my traps round," said Dick to himself. "I guess I'll
+go to bed early to-night. It'll feel kinder good to sleep in a
+reg'lar bed. Boxes is rather hard to the back, and aint comfortable
+in case of rain. I wonder what Johnny Nolan would say if he knew I'd
+got a room of my own."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+MICKY MAGUIRE
+
+
+About nine o'clock Dick sought his new lodgings. In his hands he
+carried his professional wardrobe, namely, the clothes which he
+had worn at the commencement of the day, and the implements of his
+business. These he stowed away in the bureau drawers, and by the
+light of a flickering candle took off his clothes and went to
+bed. Dick had a good digestion and a reasonably good conscience;
+consequently he was a good sleeper. Perhaps, too, the soft feather
+bed conduced to slumber. At any rate his eyes were soon closed,
+and he did not awake until half-past six the next morning.
+
+He lifted himself on his elbow, and stared around him in transient
+bewilderment.
+
+"Blest if I hadn't forgot where I was," he said to himself. "So this
+is my room, is it? Well, it seems kind of 'spectable to have a room
+and a bed to sleep in. I'd orter be able to afford seventy-five
+cents a week. I've throwed away more money than that in one evenin'.
+There aint no reason why I shouldn't live 'spectable. I wish I
+knowed as much as Frank. He's a tip-top feller. Nobody ever cared
+enough for me before to give me good advice. It was kicks, and
+cuffs, and swearin' at me all the time. I'd like to show him I can
+do something."
+
+While Dick was indulging in these reflections, he had risen from
+bed, and, finding an accession to the furniture of his room, in the
+shape of an ancient wash-stand bearing a cracked bowl and broken
+pitcher, indulged himself in the rather unusual ceremony of a good
+wash. On the whole, Dick preferred to be clean, but it was not
+always easy to gratify his desire. Lodging in the street as he had
+been accustomed to do, he had had no opportunity to perform his
+toilet in the customary manner. Even now he found himself unable to
+arrange his dishevelled locks, having neither comb nor brush. He
+determined to purchase a comb, at least, as soon as possible, and a
+brush too, if he could get one cheap. Meanwhile he combed his hair
+with his fingers as well as he could, though the result was not
+quite so satisfactory as it might have been.
+
+A question now came up for consideration. For the first time in
+his life Dick possessed two suits of clothes. Should he put on the
+clothes Frank had given him, or resume his old rags?
+
+Now, twenty-four hours before, at the time Dick was introduced to
+the reader's notice, no one could have been less fastidious as to
+his clothing than he. Indeed, he had rather a contempt for good
+clothes, or at least he thought so. But now, as he surveyed the
+ragged and dirty coat and the patched pants, Dick felt ashamed of
+them. He was unwilling to appear in the streets with them. Yet, if
+he went to work in his new suit, he was in danger of spoiling it,
+and he might not have it in his power to purchase a new one. Economy
+dictated a return to the old garments. Dick tried them on, and
+surveyed himself in the cracked glass; but the reflection did not
+please him.
+
+"They don't look 'spectable," he decided; and, forthwith taking them
+off again, he put on the new suit of the day before.
+
+"I must try to earn a little more," he thought, "to pay for my room,
+and to buy some new clo'es when these is wore out."
+
+He opened the door of his chamber, and went downstairs and into the
+street, carrying his blacking-box with him.
+
+It was Dick's custom to commence his business before breakfast;
+generally it must be owned, because he began the day penniless, and
+must earn his meal before he ate it. To-day it was different. He had
+four dollars left in his pocket-book; but this he had previously
+determined not to touch. In fact he had formed the ambitious
+design of starting an account at a savings' bank, in order to
+have something to fall back upon in case of sickness or any other
+emergency, or at any rate as a reserve fund to expend in clothing or
+other necessary articles when he required them. Hitherto he had been
+content to live on from day to day without a penny ahead; but the
+new vision of respectability which now floated before Dick's mind,
+owing to his recent acquaintance with Frank, was beginning to
+exercise a powerful effect upon him.
+
+In Dick's profession as in others there are lucky days, when
+everything seems to flow prosperously. As if to encourage him in
+his new-born resolution, our hero obtained no less than six jobs
+in the course of an hour and a half. This gave him sixty cents,
+quite abundant to purchase his breakfast, and a comb besides. His
+exertions made him hungry, and, entering a small eating-house he
+ordered a cup of coffee and a beefsteak. To this he added a couple
+of rolls. This was quite a luxurious breakfast for Dick, and more
+expensive than he was accustomed to indulge himself with. To gratify
+the curiosity of my young readers, I will put down the items with
+their cost,--
+
+  Coffee, . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5 cts.
+  Beefsteak, . . . . . . . . . . .  15
+  A couple of rolls,  . . . . . . .  5
+                                  --25 cts.
+
+It will thus be seen that our hero had expended nearly one-half of
+his morning's earnings. Some days he had been compelled to breakfast
+on five cents, and then he was forced to content himself with
+a couple of apples, or cakes. But a good breakfast is a good
+preparation for a busy day, and Dick sallied forth from the
+restaurant lively and alert, ready to do a good stroke of business.
+
+Dick's change of costume was liable to lead to one result of which
+he had not thought. His brother boot-blacks might think he had
+grown aristocratic, and was putting on airs,--that, in fact, he was
+getting above his business, and desirous to outshine his associates.
+Dick had not dreamed of this, because in fact, in spite of his
+new-born ambition, he entertained no such feeling. There was
+nothing of what boys call "big-feeling" about him. He was a borough
+democrat, using the word not politically, but in its proper sense,
+and was disposed to fraternize with all whom he styled "good
+fellows," without regard to their position. It may seem a little
+unnecessary to some of my readers to make this explanation; but they
+must remember that pride and "big-feeling" are confined to no age or
+class, but may be found in boys as well as men, and in boot-blacks
+as well as those of a higher rank.
+
+The morning being a busy time with the boot-blacks, Dick's changed
+appearance had not as yet attracted much attention. But when
+business slackened a little, our hero was destined to be reminded
+of it.
+
+Among the down-town boot-blacks was one hailing from the Five
+Points,--a stout, red-haired, freckled-faced boy of fourteen,
+bearing the name of Micky Maguire. This boy, by his boldness
+and recklessness, as well as by his personal strength, which
+was considerable, had acquired an ascendency among his fellow
+professionals, and had a gang of subservient followers, whom he led
+on to acts of ruffianism, not unfrequently terminating in a month
+or two at Blackwell's Island. Micky himself had served two terms
+there; but the confinement appeared to have had very little effect
+in amending his conduct, except, perhaps, in making him a little
+more cautious about an encounter with the "copps," as the members
+of the city police are, for some unknown reason, styled among the
+Five-Point boys.
+
+Now Micky was proud of his strength, and of the position of leader
+which it had secured him. Moreover he was democratic in his tastes,
+and had a jealous hatred of those who wore good clothes and kept
+their faces clean. He called it putting on airs, and resented the
+implied superiority. If he had been fifteen years older, and had a
+trifle more education, he would have interested himself in politics,
+and been prominent at ward meetings, and a terror to respectable
+voters on election day. As it was, he contented himself with being
+the leader of a gang of young ruffians, over whom he wielded a
+despotic power.
+
+Now it is only justice to Dick to say that, so far as wearing good
+clothes was concerned, he had never hitherto offended the eyes of
+Micky Maguire. Indeed, they generally looked as if they patronized
+the same clothing establishment. On this particular morning it
+chanced that Micky had not been very fortunate in a business way,
+and, as a natural consequence, his temper, never very amiable,
+was somewhat ruffled by the fact. He had had a very frugal
+breakfast,--not because he felt abstemious, but owing to the low
+state of his finances. He was walking along with one of his
+particular friends, a boy nicknamed Limpy Jim, so called from a
+slight peculiarity in his walk, when all at once he espied our
+friend Dick in his new suit.
+
+"My eyes!" he exclaimed, in astonishment; "Jim, just look at Ragged
+Dick. He's come into a fortun', and turned gentleman. See his new
+clothes."
+
+"So he has," said Jim. "Where'd he get 'em, I wonder?"
+
+"Hooked 'em, p'raps. Let's go and stir him up a little. We don't
+want no gentlemen on our beat. So he's puttin' on airs,--is he?
+I'll give him a lesson."
+
+So saying the two boys walked up to our hero, who had not observed
+them, his back being turned, and Micky Maguire gave him a smart slap
+on the shoulder.
+
+Dick turned round quickly.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A BATTLE AND A VICTORY
+
+
+"What's that for?" demanded Dick, turning round to see who had
+struck him.
+
+"You're gettin' mighty fine!" said Micky Maguire, surveying Dick's
+new clothes with a scornful air.
+
+There was something in his words and tone, which Dick, who was
+disposed to stand up for his dignity, did not at all relish.
+
+"Well, what's the odds if I am?" he retorted. "Does it hurt you
+any?"
+
+"See him put on airs, Jim," said Micky, turning to his companion.
+"Where'd you get them clo'es?"
+
+"Never mind where I got 'em. Maybe the Prince of Wales gave 'em to
+me."
+
+"Hear him, now, Jim," said Micky. "Most likely he stole 'em."
+
+"Stealin' aint in _my_ line."
+
+It might have been unconscious the emphasis which Dick placed on the
+word "my." At any rate Micky chose to take offence.
+
+"Do you mean to say _I_ steal?" he demanded, doubling up his fist,
+and advancing towards Dick in a threatening manner.
+
+"I don't say anything about it," answered Dick, by no means alarmed
+at this hostile demonstration. "I know you've been to the Island
+twice. P'r'aps 'twas to make a visit along of the Mayor and
+Aldermen. Maybe you was a innocent victim of oppression. I aint a
+goin' to say."
+
+Micky's freckled face grew red with wrath, for Dick had only stated
+the truth.
+
+"Do you mean to insult me?" he demanded shaking the fist already
+doubled up in Dick's face. "Maybe you want a lickin'?"
+
+"I aint partic'larly anxious to get one," said Dick, coolly. "They
+don't agree with my constitution which is nat'rally delicate. I'd
+rather have a good dinner than a lickin' any time."
+
+"You're afraid," sneered Micky. "Isn't he, Jim?"
+
+"In course he is."
+
+"P'r'aps I am," said Dick, composedly, "but it don't trouble
+me much."
+
+"Do you want to fight?" demanded Micky, encouraged by Dick's
+quietness, fancying he was afraid to encounter him.
+
+"No, I don't," said Dick. "I aint fond of fightin'. It's a very poor
+amusement, and very bad for the complexion, 'specially for the eyes
+and nose, which is apt to turn red, white, and blue."
+
+Micky misunderstood Dick, and judged from the tenor of his speech
+that he would be an easy victim. As he knew, Dick very seldom was
+concerned in any street fight,--not from cowardice, as he imagined,
+but because he had too much good sense to do so. Being quarrelsome,
+like all bullies, and supposing that he was more than a match for
+our hero, being about two inches taller, he could no longer resist
+an inclination to assault him, and tried to plant a blow in Dick's
+face which would have hurt him considerably if he had not drawn back
+just in time.
+
+Now, though Dick was far from quarrelsome, he was ready to defend
+himself on all occasions, and it was too much to expect that he
+would stand quiet and allow himself to be beaten.
+
+He dropped his blacking-box on the instant, and returned Micky's
+blow with such good effect that the young bully staggered back, and
+would have fallen, if he had not been propped up by his confederate,
+Limpy Jim.
+
+"Go in, Micky!" shouted the latter, who was rather a coward on his
+own account, but liked to see others fight. "Polish him off, that's
+a good feller."
+
+Micky was now boiling over with rage and fury, and required no
+urging. He was fully determined to make a terrible example of poor
+Dick. He threw himself upon him, and strove to bear him to the
+ground; but Dick, avoiding a close hug, in which he might possibly
+have got the worst of it, by an adroit movement, tripped up his
+antagonist, and stretched him on the side walk.
+
+"Hit him, Jim!" exclaimed Micky, furiously.
+
+Limpy Jim did not seem inclined to obey orders. There was a quiet
+strength and coolness about Dick, which alarmed him. He preferred
+that Micky should incur all the risks of battle, and accordingly set
+himself to raising his fallen comrade.
+
+"Come, Micky," said Dick, quietly, "you'd better give it up. I
+wouldn't have touched you if you hadn't hit me first. I don't want
+to fight. It's low business."
+
+"You're afraid of hurtin' your clo'es," said Micky, with a sneer.
+
+"Maybe I am," said Dick. "I hope I haven't hurt yours."
+
+Micky's answer to this was another attack, as violent and impetuous
+as the first. But his fury was in the way. He struck wildly, not
+measuring his blows, and Dick had no difficulty in turning aside, so
+that his antagonist's blow fell upon the empty air, and his momentum
+was such that he nearly fell forward headlong. Dick might readily
+have taken advantage of his unsteadiness, and knocked him down; but
+he was not vindictive, and chose to act on the defensive, except
+when he could not avoid it.
+
+Recovering himself, Micky saw that Dick was a more formidable
+antagonist than he had supposed, and was meditating another assault,
+better planned, which by its impetuosity might bear our hero to the
+ground. But there was an unlooked-for interference.
+
+"Look out for the 'copp,'" said Jim, in a low voice.
+
+Micky turned round and saw a tall policeman heading towards him, and
+thought it might be prudent to suspend hostilities. He accordingly
+picked up his black-box, and, hitching up his pants, walked off,
+attended by Limpy Jim.
+
+"What's that chap been doing?" asked the policeman of Dick.
+
+"He was amoosin' himself by pitchin' into me," replied Dick.
+
+"What for?"
+
+"He didn't like it 'cause I patronized a different tailor from him."
+
+"Well, it seems to me you _are_ dressed pretty smart for a
+boot-black," said the policeman.
+
+"I wish I wasn't a boot-black," said Dick.
+
+"Never mind, my lad. It's an honest business," said the policeman,
+who was a sensible man and a worthy citizen. "It's an honest
+business. Stick to it till you get something better."
+
+"I mean to," said Dick. "It aint easy to get out of it, as the
+prisoner remarked, when he was asked how he liked his residence."
+
+"I hope you don't speak from experience."
+
+"No," said Dick; "I don't mean to get into prison if I can
+help it."
+
+"Do you see that gentleman over there?" asked the officer, pointing
+to a well-dressed man who was walking on the other side of the
+street.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, he was once a newsboy."
+
+"And what is he now?"
+
+"He keeps a bookstore, and is quite prosperous."
+
+Dick looked at the gentleman with interest, wondering if he should
+look as respectable when he was a grown man.
+
+It will be seen that Dick was getting ambitious. Hitherto he had
+thought very little of the future, but was content to get along as
+he could, dining as well as his means would allow, and spending the
+evenings in the pit of the Old Bowery, eating peanuts between the
+acts if he was prosperous, and if unlucky supping on dry bread or
+an apple, and sleeping in an old box or a wagon. Now, for the first
+time, he began to reflect that he could not black boots all his
+life. In seven years he would be a man, and, since his meeting with
+Frank, he felt that he would like to be a respectable man. He could
+see and appreciate the difference between Frank and such a boy as
+Micky Maguire, and it was not strange that he preferred the society
+of the former.
+
+In the course of the next morning, in pursuance of his new
+resolutions for the future, he called at a savings bank, and held
+out four dollars in bills besides another dollar in change. There
+was a high railing, and a number of clerks busily writing at desks
+behind it. Dick, never having been in a bank before, did not know
+where to go. He went, by mistake, to the desk where money was paid
+out.
+
+"Where's your book?" asked the clerk.
+
+"I haven't got any."
+
+"Have you any money deposited here?"
+
+"No, sir, I want to leave some here."
+
+"Then go to the next desk."
+
+Dick followed directions, and presented himself before an elderly
+man with gray hair, who looked at him over the rims of his
+spectacles.
+
+"I want you to keep that for me," said Dick, awkwardly emptying his
+money out on the desk.
+
+"How much is there?"
+
+"Five dollars."
+
+"Have you got an account here?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Of course you can write?"
+
+The "of course" was said on account of Dick's neat dress.
+
+"Have I got to do any writing?" asked our hero, a little
+embarrassed.
+
+"We want you to sign your name in this book," and the old gentleman
+shoved round a large folio volume containing the names of
+depositors.
+
+Dick surveyed the book with some awe.
+
+"I aint much on writin'," he said.
+
+"Very well; write as well as you can."
+
+The pen was put into Dick's hand, and, after dipping it in the
+inkstand, he succeeded after a hard effort, accompanied by many
+contortions of the face, in inscribing upon the book of the bank
+the name
+
+DICK HUNTER.
+
+
+"Dick!--that means Richard, I suppose," said the bank officer, who
+had some difficulty in making out the signature.
+
+"No; Ragged Dick is what folks call me."
+
+"You don't look very ragged."
+
+"No, I've left my rags to home. They might get wore out if I used
+'em too common."
+
+"Well, my lad, I'll make out a book in the name of Dick Hunter,
+since you seem to prefer Dick to Richard. I hope you will save up
+your money and deposit more with us."
+
+Our hero took his bank-book, and gazed on the entry "Five Dollars"
+with a new sense of importance. He had been accustomed to joke
+about Erie shares, but now, for the first time, he felt himself a
+capitalist; on a small scale, to be sure, but still it was no small
+thing for Dick to have five dollars which he could call his own. He
+firmly determined that he would lay by every cent he could spare
+from his earnings towards the fund he hoped to accumulate.
+
+But Dick was too sensible not to know that there was something more
+than money needed to win a respectable position in the world. He
+felt that he was very ignorant. Of reading and writing he only knew
+the rudiments, and that, with a slight acquaintance with arithmetic,
+was all he did know of books. Dick knew he must study hard, and
+he dreaded it. He looked upon learning as attended with greater
+difficulties than it really possesses. But Dick had good pluck. He
+meant to learn, nevertheless, and resolved to buy a book with his
+first spare earnings.
+
+When Dick went home at night he locked up his bank-book in one
+of the drawers of the bureau. It was wonderful how much more
+independent he felt whenever he reflected upon the contents of
+that drawer, and with what an important air of joint ownership
+he regarded the bank building in which his small savings were
+deposited.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+DICK SECURES A TUTOR
+
+
+The next morning Dick was unusually successful, having plenty to do,
+and receiving for one job twenty-five cents,--the gentleman refusing
+to take change. Then flashed upon Dick's mind the thought that he
+had not yet returned the change due to the gentleman whose boots he
+had blacked on the morning of his introduction to the reader.
+
+"What'll he think of me?" said Dick to himself. "I hope he won't
+think I'm mean enough to keep the money."
+
+Now Dick was scrupulously honest, and though the temptation to be
+otherwise had often been strong, he had always resisted it. He was
+not willing on any account to keep money which did not belong to
+him, and he immediately started for 125 Fulton Street (the address
+which had been given him) where he found Mr. Greyson's name on the
+door of an office on the first floor.
+
+The door being open, Dick walked in.
+
+"Is Mr. Greyson in?" he asked of a clerk who sat on a high stool
+before a desk.
+
+"Not just now. He'll be in soon. Will you wait?"
+
+"Yes," said Dick.
+
+"Very well; take a seat then."
+
+Dick sat down and took up the morning "Tribune," but presently
+came to a word of four syllables, which he pronounced to himself a
+"sticker," and laid it down. But he had not long to wait, for five
+minutes later Mr. Greyson entered.
+
+"Did you wish to speak to me, my lad?" said he to Dick, whom in his
+new clothes he did not recognize.
+
+"Yes, sir," said Dick. "I owe you some money."
+
+"Indeed!" said Mr. Greyson, pleasantly; "that's an agreeable
+surprise. I didn't know but you had come for some. So you are
+a debtor of mine, and not a creditor?"
+
+"I b'lieve that's right," said Dick, drawing fifteen cents from his
+pocket, and placing in Mr. Greyson's hand.
+
+"Fifteen cents!" repeated he, in some surprise. "How do you happen
+to be indebted to me in that amount?"
+
+"You gave me a quarter for a-shinin' your boots, yesterday mornin',
+and couldn't wait for the change. I meant to have brought it before,
+but I forgot all about it till this mornin'."
+
+"It had quite slipped my mind also. But you don't look like the boy
+I employed. If I remember rightly he wasn't as well dressed as you."
+
+"No," said Dick. "I was dressed for a party, then, but the clo'es
+was too well ventilated to be comfortable in cold weather."
+
+"You're an honest boy," said Mr. Greyson. "Who taught you to be
+honest?"
+
+"Nobody," said Dick. "But it's mean to cheat and steal. I've always
+knowed that."
+
+"Then you've got ahead of some of our business men. Do you read
+the Bible?"
+
+"No," said Dick. "I've heard it's a good book, but I don't know much
+about it."
+
+"You ought to go to some Sunday School. Would you be willing?"
+
+"Yes," said Dick, promptly. "I want to grow up 'spectable. But I
+don't know where to go."
+
+"Then I'll tell you. The church I attend is at the corner of Fifth
+Avenue and Twenty-first Street."
+
+"I've seen it," said Dick.
+
+"I have a class in the Sunday School there. If you'll come next
+Sunday, I'll take you into my class, and do what I can to help you."
+
+"Thank you," said Dick, "but p'r'aps you'll get tired of teaching
+me. I'm awful ignorant."
+
+"No, my lad," said Mr. Greyson, kindly. "You evidently have some
+good principles to start with, as you have shown by your scorn of
+dishonesty. I shall hope good things of you in the future."
+
+"Well, Dick," said our hero, apostrophizing himself, as he left the
+office; "you're gettin' up in the world. You've got money invested,
+and are goin' to attend church, by partic'lar invitation, on Fifth
+Avenue. I shouldn't wonder much if you should find cards, when you
+get home, from the Mayor, requestin' the honor of your company to
+dinner, along with other distinguished guests."
+
+Dick felt in very good spirits. He seemed to be emerging from the
+world in which he had hitherto lived, into a new atmosphere of
+respectability, and the change seemed very pleasant to him.
+
+At six o'clock Dick went into a restaurant on Chatham Street, and
+got a comfortable supper. He had been so successful during the day
+that, after paying for this, he still had ninety cents left. While
+he was despatching his supper, another boy came in, smaller and
+slighter than Dick, and sat down beside him. Dick recognized him
+as a boy who three months before had entered the ranks of the
+boot-blacks, but who, from a natural timidity, had not been able
+to earn much. He was ill-fitted for the coarse companionship of
+the street boys, and shrank from the rude jokes of his present
+associates. Dick had never troubled him; for our hero had a certain
+chivalrous feeling which would not allow him to bully or disturb a
+younger and weaker boy than himself.
+
+"How are you, Fosdick?" said Dick, as the other seated himself.
+
+"Pretty well," said Fosdick. "I suppose you're all right."
+
+"Oh, yes, I'm right side up with care. I've been havin' a bully
+supper. What are you goin' to have?"
+
+"Some bread and butter."
+
+"Why don't you get a cup o' coffee?"
+
+"Why," said Fosdick, reluctantly, "I haven't got money enough
+to-night."
+
+"Never mind," said Dick; "I'm in luck to-day, I'll stand treat."
+
+"That's kind in you," said Fosdick, gratefully.
+
+"Oh, never mind that," said Dick.
+
+Accordingly he ordered a cup of coffee, and a plate of beefsteak,
+and was gratified to see that his young companion partook of both
+with evident relish. When the repast was over, the boys went out
+into the street together, Dick pausing at the desk to settle for
+both suppers.
+
+"Where are you going to sleep to-night, Fosdick?" asked Dick, as
+they stood on the sidewalk.
+
+"I don't know," said Fosdick, a little sadly. "In some doorway, I
+expect. But I'm afraid the police will find me out, and make me
+move on."
+
+"I'll tell you what," said Dick, "you must go home with me. I guess
+my bed will hold two."
+
+"Have you got a room?" asked the other, in surprise.
+
+"Yes," said Dick, rather proudly, and with a little excusable
+exultation. "I've got a room over in Mott Street; there I can
+receive my friends. That'll be better than sleepin' in a
+door-way,--won't it?"
+
+"Yes, indeed it will," said Fosdick. "How lucky I was to come across
+you! It comes hard to me living as I do. When my father was alive I
+had every comfort."
+
+"That's more'n I ever had," said Dick. "But I'm goin' to try to live
+comfortable now. Is your father dead?"
+
+"Yes," said Fosdick, sadly. "He was a printer; but he was drowned
+one dark night from a Fulton ferry-boat, and, as I had no relations
+in the city, and no money, I was obliged to go to work as quick as
+I could. But I don't get on very well."
+
+"Didn't you have no brothers nor sisters?" asked Dick.
+
+"No," said Fosdick; "father and I used to live alone. He was always
+so much company to me that I feel very lonesome without him. There's
+a man out West somewhere that owes him two thousand dollars. He used
+to live in the city, and father lent him all his money to help him
+go into business; but he failed, or pretended to, and went off. If
+father hadn't lost that money he would have left me well off; but no
+money would have made up his loss to me."
+
+"What's the man's name that went off with your father's money?"
+
+"His name is Hiram Bates."
+
+"P'r'aps you'll get the money again, sometime."
+
+"There isn't much chance of it," said Fosdick. "I'd sell out my
+chances of that for five dollars."
+
+"Maybe I'll buy you out sometime," said Dick. "Now, come round and
+see what sort of a room I've got. I used to go to the theatre
+evenings, when I had money; but now I'd rather go to bed early, and
+have a good sleep."
+
+"I don't care much about theatres," said Fosdick. "Father didn't use
+to let me go very often. He said it wasn't good for boys."
+
+"I like to go to the Old Bowery sometimes. They have tip-top plays
+there. Can you read and write well?" he asked, as a sudden thought
+came to him.
+
+"Yes," said Fosdick. "Father always kept me at school when he was
+alive, and I stood pretty well in my classes. I was expecting to
+enter at the Free Academy* next year."
+
+* Now the college of the city of New York.
+
+
+"Then I'll tell you what," said Dick; "I'll make a bargain with you.
+I can't read much more'n a pig; and my writin' looks like hens'
+tracks. I don't want to grow up knowin' no more'n a four-year-old
+boy. If you'll teach me readin' and writin' evenin's, you shall
+sleep in my room every night. That'll be better'n door-steps or old
+boxes, where I've slept many a time."
+
+"Are you in earnest?" said Fosdick, his face lighting up hopefully.
+
+"In course I am," said Dick. "It's fashionable for young gentlemen
+to have private tootors to introduct 'em into the flower-beds of
+literatoor and science, and why shouldn't I foller the fashion? You
+shall be my perfessor; only you must promise not to be very hard if
+my writin' looks like a rail-fence on a bender."
+
+"I'll try not to be too severe," said Fosdick, laughing. "I shall be
+thankful for such a chance to get a place to sleep. Have you got
+anything to read out of?"
+
+"No," said Dick. "My extensive and well-selected library was lost
+overboard in a storm, when I was sailin' from the Sandwich Islands
+to the desert of Sahara. But I'll buy a paper. That'll do me a
+long time."
+
+Accordingly Dick stopped at a paper-stand, and bought a copy of
+a weekly paper, filled with the usual variety of reading
+matter,--stories, sketches, poems, etc.
+
+They soon arrived at Dick's lodging-house. Our hero, procuring a
+lamp from the landlady, led the way into his apartment, which he
+entered with the proud air of a proprietor.
+
+"Well, how do you like it, Fosdick?" he asked, complacently.
+
+The time was when Fosdick would have thought it untidy and not
+particularly attractive. But he had served a severe apprenticeship
+in the streets, and it was pleasant to feel himself under shelter,
+and he was not disposed to be critical.
+
+"It looks very comfortable, Dick," he said.
+
+"The bed aint very large," said Dick; "but I guess we can
+get along."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Fosdick, cheerfully. "I don't take up much room."
+
+"Then that's all right. There's two chairs, you see, one for you
+and one for me. In case the mayor comes in to spend the evenin'
+socially, he can sit on the bed."
+
+The boys seated themselves, and five minutes later, under the
+guidance of his young tutor, Dick had commenced his studies.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE FIRST LESSON
+
+
+Fortunately for Dick, his young tutor was well qualified to instruct
+him. Henry Fosdick, though only twelve years old, knew as much as
+many boys of fourteen. He had always been studious and ambitious
+to excel. His father, being a printer, employed in an office where
+books were printed, often brought home new books in sheets, which
+Henry was always glad to read. Mr. Fosdick had been, besides, a
+subscriber to the Mechanics' Apprentices' Library, which contains
+many thousands of well-selected and instructive books. Thus Henry
+had acquired an amount of general information, unusual in a boy of
+his age. Perhaps he had devoted too much time to study, for he was
+not naturally robust. All this, however, fitted him admirably for
+the office to which Dick had appointed him,--that of his private
+instructor.
+
+The two boys drew up their chairs to the rickety table, and spread
+out the paper before them.
+
+"The exercises generally Commence with ringin' the bell," said Dick;
+"but as I aint got none, we'll have to do without."
+
+"And the teacher is generally provided with a rod," said Fosdick.
+"Isn't there a poker handy, that I can use in case my scholar
+doesn't behave well?"
+
+"'Taint lawful to use fire-arms," said Dick.
+
+"Now, Dick," said Fosdick, "before we begin, I must find out how
+much you already know. Can you read any?"
+
+"Not enough to hurt me," said Dick. "All I know about readin' you
+could put in a nutshell, and there'd be room left for a small
+family."
+
+"I suppose you know your letters?"
+
+"Yes," said Dick, "I know 'em all, but not intimately. I guess I can
+call 'em all by name."
+
+"Where did you learn them? Did you ever go to school?"
+
+"Yes; I went two days."
+
+"Why did you stop?"
+
+"It didn't agree with my constitution."
+
+"You don't look very delicate," said Fosdick.
+
+"No," said Dick, "I aint troubled much that way; but I found lickins
+didn't agree with me."
+
+"Did you get punished?"
+
+"Awful," said Dick.
+
+"What for?"
+
+"For indulgin' in a little harmless amoosement," said Dick. "You see
+the boy that was sittin' next to me fell asleep, which I considered
+improper in school-time; so I thought I'd help the teacher a little
+by wakin' him up. So I took a pin and stuck into him; but I guess it
+went a little too far, for he screeched awful. The teacher found out
+what it was that made him holler, and whipped me with a ruler till I
+was black and blue. I thought 'twas about time to take a vacation;
+so that's the last time I went to school."
+
+"You didn't learn to read in that time, of course?"
+
+"No," said Dick; "but I was a newsboy a little while; so I learned a
+little, just so's to find out what the news was. Sometimes I didn't
+read straight and called the wrong news. One mornin' I asked another
+boy what the paper said, and he told me the King of Africa was dead.
+I thought it was all right till folks began to laugh."
+
+"Well, Dick, if you'll only study well, you won't be liable to make
+such mistakes."
+
+"I hope so," said Dick. "My friend Horace Greeley told me the other
+day that he'd get me to take his place now and then when he was off
+makin' speeches if my edication hadn't been neglected."
+
+"I must find a good piece for you to begin on," said Fosdick,
+looking over the paper.
+
+"Find an easy one," said Dick, "with words of one story."
+
+Fosdick at length found a piece which he thought would answer. He
+discovered on trial that Dick had not exaggerated his deficiencies.
+Words of two syllables he seldom pronounced right, and was much
+surprised when he was told how "through" was sounded.
+
+"Seems to me it's throwin' away letters to use all them," he said.
+
+"How would you spell it?" asked his young teacher.
+
+"T-h-r-u," Said Dick.
+
+"Well," said Fosdick, "there's a good many other words that are
+spelt with more letters than they need to have. But it's the
+fashion, and we must follow it."
+
+But if Dick was ignorant, he was quick, and had an excellent
+capacity. Moreover he had perseverance, and was not easily
+discouraged. He had made up his mind he must know more, and was
+not disposed to complain of the difficulty of his task. Fosdick
+had occasion to laugh more than once at his ludicrous mistakes; but
+Dick laughed too, and on the whole both were quite interested in
+the lesson.
+
+At the end of an hour and a half the boys stopped for the evening.
+
+"You're learning fast, Dick," said Fosdick. "At this rate you will
+soon learn to read well."
+
+"Will I?" asked Dick with an expression of satisfaction. "I'm glad
+of that. I don't want to be ignorant. I didn't use to care, but I do
+now. I want to grow up 'spectable."
+
+"So do I, Dick. We will both help each other, and I am sure we can
+accomplish something. But I am beginning to feel sleepy."
+
+"So am I," said Dick. "Them hard words make my head ache. I wonder
+who made 'em all?"
+
+"That's more than I can tell. I suppose you've seen a dictionary."
+
+"That's another of 'em. No, I can't say I have, though I may have
+seen him in the street without knowin' him."
+
+"A dictionary is a book containing all the words in the language."
+
+"How many are there?"
+
+"I don't rightly know; but I think there are about fifty thousand."
+
+"It's a pretty large family," said Dick. "Have I got to learn 'em
+all?"
+
+"That will not be necessary. There are a large number which you
+would never find occasion to use."
+
+"I'm glad of that," said Dick; "for I don't expect to live to be
+more'n a hundred, and by that time I wouldn't be more'n half
+through."
+
+By this time the flickering lamp gave a decided hint to the boys
+that unless they made haste they would have to undress in the dark.
+They accordingly drew off their clothes, and Dick jumped into bed.
+But Fosdick, before doing so, knelt down by the side of the bed, and
+said a short prayer.
+
+"What's that for?" asked Dick, curiously.
+
+"I was saying my prayers," said Fosdick, as he rose from his knees.
+"Don't you ever do it?"
+
+"No," said Dick. "Nobody ever taught me."
+
+"Then I'll teach you. Shall I?"
+
+"I don't know," said Dick, dubiously. "What's the good?"
+
+Fosdick explained as well as he could, and perhaps his simple
+explanation was better adapted to Dick's comprehension than one
+from an older person would have been. Dick felt more free to ask
+questions, and the example of his new friend, for whom he was
+beginning to feel a warm attachment, had considerable effect upon
+him. When, therefore, Fosdick asked again if he should teach him a
+prayer, Dick consented, and his young bedfellow did so. Dick was not
+naturally irreligious. If he had lived without a knowledge of God
+and of religious things, it was scarcely to be wondered at in a lad
+who, from an early age, had been thrown upon his own exertions for
+the means of living, with no one to care for him or give him good
+advice. But he was so far good that he could appreciate goodness in
+others, and this it was that had drawn him to Frank in the first
+place, and now to Henry Fosdick. He did not, therefore, attempt to
+ridicule his companion, as some boys better brought up might have
+done, but was willing to follow his example in what something told
+him was right. Our young hero had taken an important step toward
+securing that genuine respectability which he was ambitious to
+attain.
+
+Weary with the day's work, and Dick perhaps still more fatigued by
+the unusual mental effort he had made, the boys soon sank into a
+deep and peaceful slumber, from which they did not awaken till six
+o'clock the next morning. Before going out Dick sought Mrs. Mooney,
+and spoke to her on the subject of taking Fosdick as a room-mate.
+He found that she had no objection, provided he would allow her
+twenty-five cents a week extra, in consideration of the extra
+trouble which his companion might be expected to make. To this
+Dick assented, and the arrangement was definitely concluded.
+
+This over, the two boys went out and took stations near each other.
+Dick had more of a business turn than Henry, and less shrinking from
+publicity, so that his earnings were greater. But he had undertaken
+to pay the entire expenses of the room, and needed to earn more.
+Sometimes, when two customers presented themselves at the same time,
+he was able to direct one to his friend. So at the end of the week
+both boys found themselves with surplus earnings. Dick had the
+satisfaction of adding two dollars and a half to his deposits in
+the Savings Bank, and Fosdick commenced an account by depositing
+seventy-five cents.
+
+On Sunday morning Dick bethought himself of his promise to Mr.
+Greyson to come to the church on Fifth Avenue. To tell the truth,
+Dick recalled it with some regret. He had never been inside a church
+since he could remember, and he was not much attracted by the
+invitation he had received. But Henry, finding him wavering, urged
+him to go, and offered to go with him. Dick gladly accepted the
+offer, feeling that he required someone to lend him countenance
+under such unusual circumstances.
+
+Dick dressed himself with scrupulous care, giving his shoes a
+"shine" so brilliant that it did him great credit in a professional
+point of view, and endeavored to clean his hands thoroughly; but, in
+spite of all he could do, they were not so white as if his business
+had been of a different character.
+
+Having fully completed his preparations, he descended into the
+street, and, with Henry by his side, crossed over to Broadway.
+
+The boys pursued their way up Broadway, which on Sunday presents
+a striking contrast in its quietness to the noise and confusion
+of ordinary week-days, as far as Union Square, then turned down
+Fourteenth Street, which brought them to Fifth Avenue.
+
+"Suppose we dine at Delmonico's," said Fosdick, looking towards that
+famous restaurant.
+
+"I'd have to sell some of my Erie shares," said Dick.
+
+A short walk now brought them to the church of which mention has
+already been made. They stood outside, a little abashed, watching
+the fashionably attired people who were entering, and were feeling
+a little undecided as to whether they had better enter also, when
+Dick felt a light touch upon his shoulder.
+
+Turning round, he met the smiling glance of Mr. Greyson.
+
+"So, my young friend, you have kept your promise," he said. "And
+whom have you brought with you?"
+
+"A friend of mine," said Dick. "His name is Henry Fosdick."
+
+"I am glad you have brought him. Now follow me, and I will give you
+seats."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+DICK'S FIRST APPEARANCE IN SOCIETY
+
+
+It was the hour for morning service. The boys followed Mr. Greyson
+into the handsome church, and were assigned seats in his own pew.
+
+There were two persons already seated in it,--a good-looking lady of
+middle age, and a pretty little girl of nine. They were Mrs. Greyson
+and her only daughter Ida. They looked pleasantly at the boys as
+they entered, smiling a welcome to them.
+
+The morning service commenced. It must be acknowledged that Dick
+felt rather awkward. It was an unusual place for him, and it need
+not be wondered at that he felt like a cat in a strange garret. He
+would not have known when to rise if he had not taken notice of what
+the rest of the audience did, and followed their example. He was
+sitting next to Ida, and as it was the first time he had ever been
+near so well-dressed a young lady, he naturally felt bashful. When
+the hymns were announced, Ida found the place, and offered a
+hymn-book to our hero. Dick took it awkwardly, but his studies had
+not yet been pursued far enough for him to read the words readily.
+However, he resolved to keep up appearances, and kept his eyes
+fixed steadily on the hymn-book.
+
+At length the service was over. The people began to file slowly out
+of church, and among them, of course, Mr. Greyson's family and the
+two boys. It seemed very strange to Dick to find himself in such
+different companionship from what he had been accustomed, and he
+could not help thinking, "Wonder what Johnny Nolan 'ould say if he
+could see me now!"
+
+But Johnny's business engagements did not often summon him to Fifth
+Avenue, and Dick was not likely to be seen by any of his friends in
+the lower part of the city.
+
+"We have our Sunday school in the afternoon," said Mr. Greyson. "I
+suppose you live at some distance from here?"
+
+"In Mott Street, sir," answered Dick.
+
+"That is too far to go and return. Suppose you and your friend
+come and dine with us, and then we can come here together in the
+afternoon."
+
+Dick was as much astonished at this invitation as if he had really
+been invited by the Mayor to dine with him and the Board of
+Aldermen. Mr. Greyson was evidently a rich man, and yet he had
+actually invited two boot-blacks to dine with him.
+
+"I guess we'd better go home, sir," said Dick, hesitating.
+
+"I don't think you can have any very pressing engagements to
+interfere with your accepting my invitation," said Mr. Greyson,
+good-humoredly, for he understood the reason of Dick's hesitation.
+"So I take it for granted that you both accept."
+
+Before Dick fairly knew what he intended to do, he was walking down
+Fifth Avenue with his new friends.
+
+Now, our young hero was not naturally bashful; but he certainly felt
+so now, especially as Miss Ida Greyson chose to walk by his side,
+leaving Henry Fosdick to walk with her father and mother.
+
+"What is your name?" asked Ida, pleasantly.
+
+Our hero was about to answer "Ragged Dick," when it occurred to him
+that in the present company he had better forget his old nickname.
+
+"Dick Hunter," he answered.
+
+"Dick!" repeated Ida. "That means Richard, doesn't it?"
+
+"Everybody calls me Dick."
+
+"I have a cousin Dick," said the young lady, sociably. "His name is
+Dick Wilson. I suppose you don't know him?"
+
+"No," said Dick.
+
+"I like the name of Dick," said the young lady, with charming
+frankness.
+
+Without being able to tell why, Dick felt rather glad she did. He
+plucked up courage to ask her name.
+
+"My name is Ida," answered the young lady. "Do you like it?"
+
+"Yes," said Dick. "It's a bully name."
+
+Dick turned red as soon as he had said it, for he felt that he had
+not used the right expression.
+
+The little girl broke into a silvery laugh.
+
+"What a funny boy you are!" she said.
+
+"I didn't mean it," said Dick, stammering. "I meant it's a tip-top
+name."
+
+Here Ida laughed again, and Dick wished himself back in Mott Street.
+
+"How old are you?" inquired Ida, continuing her examination.
+
+"I'm fourteen,--goin' on fifteen," said Dick.
+
+"You're a big boy of your age," said Ida. "My cousin Dick is a year
+older than you, but he isn't as large."
+
+Dick looked pleased. Boys generally like to be told that they are
+large of their age.
+
+"How old be you?" asked Dick, beginning to feel more at his ease.
+
+"I'm nine years old," said Ida. "I go to Miss Jarvis's school. I've
+just begun to learn French. Do you know French?"
+
+"Not enough to hurt me," said Dick.
+
+Ida laughed again, and told him that he was a droll boy.
+
+"Do you like it?" asked Dick.
+
+"I like it pretty well, except the verbs. I can't remember them
+well. Do you go to school?"
+
+"I'm studying with a private tutor," said Dick.
+
+"Are you? So is my cousin Dick. He's going to college this year. Are
+you going to college?"
+
+"Not this year."
+
+"Because, if you did, you know you'd be in the same class with my
+cousin. It would be funny to have two Dicks in one class."
+
+They turned down Twenty-fourth Street, passing the Fifth Avenue
+Hotel on the left, and stopped before an elegant house with a brown
+stone front. The bell was rung, and the door being opened, the boys,
+somewhat abashed, followed Mr. Greyson into a handsome hall. They
+were told where to hang their hats, and a moment afterwards were
+ushered into a comfortable dining-room, where a table was spread
+for dinner.
+
+Dick took his seat on the edge of a sofa, and was tempted to rub his
+eyes to make sure that he was really awake. He could hardly believe
+that he was a guest in so fine a mansion.
+
+Ida helped to put the boys at their ease.
+
+"Do you like pictures?" she asked.
+
+"Very much," answered Henry.
+
+The little girl brought a book of handsome engravings, and, seating
+herself beside Dick, to whom she seemed to have taken a decided
+fancy, commenced showing them to him.
+
+"There are the Pyramids of Egypt," she said, pointing to one engraving.
+
+"What are they for?" asked Dick, puzzled. "I don't see any winders."
+
+"No," said Ida, "I don't believe anybody lives there. Do they, papa?"
+
+"No, my dear. They were used for the burial of the dead. The largest
+of them is said to be the loftiest building in the world with one
+exception. The spire of the Cathedral of Strasburg is twenty-four
+feet higher, if I remember rightly."
+
+"Is Egypt near here?" asked Dick.
+
+"Oh, no, it's ever so many miles off; about four or five hundred.
+Didn't you know?"
+
+"No," said Dick. "I never heard."
+
+"You don't appear to be very accurate in your information, Ida,"
+said her mother. "Four or five thousand miles would be considerably
+nearer the truth."
+
+After a little more conversation they sat down to dinner. Dick
+seated himself in an embarrassed way. He was very much afraid of
+doing or saying something which would be considered an impropriety,
+and had the uncomfortable feeling that everybody was looking at him,
+and watching his behavior.
+
+"Where do you live, Dick?" asked Ida, familiarly.
+
+"In Mott Street."
+
+"Where is that?"
+
+"More than a mile off."
+
+"Is it a nice street?"
+
+"Not very," said Dick. "Only poor folks live there."
+
+"Are you poor?"
+
+"Little girls should be seen and not heard," said her mother, gently.
+
+"If you are," said Ida, "I'll give you the five-dollar gold-piece
+aunt gave me for a birthday present."
+
+"Dick cannot be called poor, my child," said Mrs. Greyson, "since he
+earns his living by his own exertions."
+
+"Do you earn your living?" asked Ida, who was a very inquisitive
+young lady, and not easily silenced. "What do you do?"
+
+Dick blushed violently. At such a table, and in presence of the
+servant who was standing at that moment behind his chair, he did not
+like to say that he was a shoe-black, although he well knew that
+there was nothing dishonorable in the occupation.
+
+Mr. Greyson perceived his feelings, and to spare them, said, "You
+are too inquisitive, Ida. Sometime Dick may tell you, but you know
+we don't talk of business on Sundays."
+
+Dick in his embarrassment had swallowed a large spoonful of hot
+soup, which made him turn red in the face. For the second time,
+in spite of the prospect of the best dinner he had ever eaten, he
+wished himself back in Mott Street. Henry Fosdick was more easy
+and unembarrassed than Dick, not having led such a vagabond and
+neglected life. But it was to Dick that Ida chiefly directed her
+conversation, having apparently taken a fancy to his frank and
+handsome face. I believe I have already said that Dick was a very
+good-looking boy, especially now since he kept his face clean. He
+had a frank, honest expression, which generally won its way to the
+favor of those with whom he came in contact.
+
+Dick got along pretty well at the table by dint of noticing how the
+rest acted, but there was one thing he could not manage, eating with
+his fork, which, by the way, he thought a very singular arrangement.
+
+At length they arose from the table, somewhat to Dick's relief.
+Again Ida devoted herself to the boys, and exhibited a profusely
+illustrated Bible for their entertainment. Dick was interested in
+looking at the pictures, though he knew very little of their
+subjects. Henry Fosdick was much better informed, as might have
+been expected.
+
+When the boys were about to leave the house with Mr. Greyson for the
+Sunday school, Ida placed her hand in Dick's, and said persuasively.
+"You'll come again, Dick, won't you?"
+
+"Thank you," said Dick, "I'd like to," and he could not help
+thinking Ida the nicest girl he had ever seen.
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Greyson, hospitably, "we shall be glad to see you
+both here again."
+
+"Thank you very much," said Henry Fosdick, gratefully. "We shall
+like very much to come."
+
+I will not dwell upon the hour spent in Sunday school, nor upon the
+remarks of Mr. Greyson to his class. He found Dick's ignorance of
+religious subjects so great that he was obliged to begin at the
+beginning with him. Dick was interested in hearing the children
+sing, and readily promised to come again the next Sunday.
+
+When the service was over Dick and Henry walked homewards. Dick
+could not help letting his thoughts rest on the sweet little girl
+who had given him so cordial a welcome, and hoping that he might
+meet her again.
+
+"Mr. Greyson is a nice man,--isn't he, Dick?" asked Henry, as they
+were turning into Mott Street, and were already in sight of their
+lodging-house.
+
+"Aint he, though?" said Dick. "He treated us just as if we were
+young gentlemen."
+
+"Ida seemed to take a great fancy to you."
+
+"She's a tip-top girl," said Dick, "but she asked so many questions
+that I didn't know what to say."
+
+He had scarcely finished speaking, when a stone whizzed by his head,
+and, turning quickly, he saw Micky Maguire running round the corner
+of the street which they had just passed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+MICKY MAGUIRE'S SECOND DEFEAT
+
+
+Dick was no coward. Nor was he in the habit of submitting passively
+to an insult. When, therefore, he recognized Micky as his assailant,
+he instantly turned and gave chase. Micky anticipated pursuit, and
+ran at his utmost speed. It is doubtful if Dick would have overtaken
+him, but Micky had the ill luck to trip just as he had entered a
+narrow alley, and, falling with some violence, received a sharp blow
+from the hard stones, which made him scream with pain.
+
+"Ow!" he whined. "Don't you hit a feller when he's down."
+
+"What made you fire that stone at me?" demanded our hero, looking
+down at the fallen bully.
+
+"Just for fun," said Micky.
+
+"It would have been a very agreeable s'prise if it had hit me," said
+Dick. "S'posin' I fire a rock at you jest for fun."
+
+"Don't!" exclaimed Micky, in alarm.
+
+"It seems you don't like agreeable s'prises," said Dick, "any more'n
+the man did what got hooked by a cow one mornin', before breakfast.
+It didn't improve his appetite much."
+
+"I've most broke my arm," said Micky, ruefully, rubbing the affected
+limb.
+
+"If it's broke you can't fire no more stones, which is a very
+cheerin' reflection," said Dick. "Ef you haven't money enough to buy
+a wooden one I'll lend you a quarter. There's one good thing about
+wooden ones, they aint liable to get cold in winter, which is
+another cheerin' reflection."
+
+"I don't want none of yer cheerin' reflections," said Micky,
+sullenly. "Yer company aint wanted here."
+
+"Thank you for your polite invitation to leave," said Dick, bowing
+ceremoniously. "I'm willin' to go, but ef you throw any more stones
+at me, Micky Maguire, I'll hurt you worse than the stones did."
+
+The only answer made to this warning was a scowl from his fallen
+opponent. It was quite evident that Dick had the best of it, and
+he thought it prudent to say nothing.
+
+"As I've got a friend waitin' outside, I shall have to tear myself
+away," said Dick. "You'd better not throw any more stones, Micky
+Maguire, for it don't seem to agree with your constitution."
+
+Micky muttered something which Dick did not stay to hear. He backed
+out of the alley, keeping a watchful eye on his fallen foe, and
+rejoined Henry Fosdick, who was awaiting his return.
+
+"Who was it, Dick?" he asked.
+
+"A partic'lar friend of mine, Micky Maguire," said Dick. "He
+playfully fired a rock at my head as a mark of his 'fection. He
+loves me like a brother, Micky does."
+
+"Rather a dangerous kind of a friend, I should think,"
+said Fosdick. "He might have killed you."
+
+"I've warned him not to be so 'fectionate another time," said Dick.
+
+"I know him," said Henry Fosdick. "He's at the head of a gang of
+boys living at the Five-Points. He threatened to whip me once
+because a gentleman employed me to black his boots instead of him."
+
+"He's been at the Island two or three times for stealing," said
+Dick. "I guess he won't touch me again. He'd rather get hold of
+small boys. If he ever does anything to you, Fosdick, just let
+me know, and I'll give him a thrashing."
+
+Dick was right. Micky Maguire was a bully, and like most bullies did
+not fancy tackling boys whose strength was equal or superior to his
+own. Although he hated Dick more than ever, because he thought our
+hero was putting on airs, he had too lively a remembrance of his
+strength and courage to venture upon another open attack. He
+contented himself, therefore, whenever he met Dick, with scowling at
+him. Dick took this very philosophically, remarking that, "if it was
+soothin' to Micky's feelings, he might go ahead, as it didn't hurt
+him much."
+
+It will not be necessary to chronicle the events of the next few
+weeks. A new life had commenced for Dick. He no longer haunted the
+gallery of the Old Bowery; and even Tony Pastor's hospitable doors
+had lost their old attractions. He spent two hours every evening in
+study. His progress was astonishingly rapid. He was gifted with a
+natural quickness; and he was stimulated by the desire to acquire a
+fair education as a means of "growin' up 'spectable," as he termed
+it. Much was due also to the patience and perseverance of Henry
+Fosdick, who made a capital teacher.
+
+"You're improving wonderfully, Dick," said his friend, one evening,
+when Dick had read an entire paragraph without a mistake.
+
+"Am I?" said Dick, with satisfaction.
+
+"Yes. If you'll buy a writing-book to-morrow, we can begin writing
+to-morrow evening."
+
+"What else do you know, Henry?" asked Dick.
+
+"Arithmetic, and geography, and grammar."
+
+"What a lot you know!" said Dick, admiringly.
+
+"I don't _know_ any of them," said Fosdick. "I've only studied them.
+I wish I knew a great deal more."
+
+"I'll be satisfied when I know as much as you," said Dick.
+
+"It seems a great deal to you now, Dick, but in a few months you'll
+think differently. The more you know, the more you'll want to know."
+
+"Then there aint any end to learnin'?" said Dick.
+
+"No."
+
+"Well," said Dick, "I guess I'll be as much as sixty before I
+know everything."
+
+"Yes; as old as that, probably," said Fosdick, laughing.
+
+"Anyway, you know too much to be blackin' boots. Leave that to
+ignorant chaps like me."
+
+"You won't be ignorant long, Dick."
+
+"You'd ought to get into some office or countin'-room."
+
+"I wish I could," said Fosdick, earnestly. "I don't succeed very
+well at blacking boots. You make a great deal more than I do."
+
+"That's cause I aint troubled with bashfulness," said Dick.
+"Bashfulness aint as natural to me as it is to you. I'm always on
+hand, as the cat said to the milk. You'd better give up shines,
+Fosdick, and give your 'tention to mercantile pursuits."
+
+"I've thought of trying to get a place," said Fosdick; "but no one
+would take me with these clothes;" and he directed his glance to his
+well-worn suit, which he kept as neat as he could, but which, in
+spite of all his care, began to show decided marks of use. There
+was also here and there a stain of blacking upon it, which, though
+an advertisement of his profession, scarcely added to its good
+appearance.
+
+"I almost wanted to stay at home from Sunday school last Sunday," he
+continued, "because I thought everybody would notice how dirty and
+worn my clothes had got to be."
+
+"If my clothes wasn't two sizes too big for you," said Dick,
+generously, "I'd change. You'd look as if you'd got into your
+great-uncle's suit by mistake."
+
+"You're very kind, Dick, to think of changing," said Fosdick, "for
+your suit is much better than mine; but I don't think that mine
+would suit you very well. The pants would show a little more of
+your ankles than is the fashion, and you couldn't eat a very hearty
+dinner without bursting the buttons off the vest."
+
+"That wouldn't be very convenient," said Dick. "I aint fond of
+lacin' to show my elegant figger. But I say," he added with a
+sudden thought, "how much money have we got in the savings' bank?"
+
+Fosdick took a key from his pocket, and went to the drawer in which
+the bank-books were kept, and, opening it, brought them out for
+inspection.
+
+It was found that Dick had the sum of eighteen dollars and ninety
+cents placed to his credit, while Fosdick had six dollars and
+forty-five cents. To explain the large difference, it must be
+remembered that Dick had deposited five dollars before Henry
+deposited anything, being the amount he had received as a gift
+from Mr. Whitney.
+
+"How much does that make, the lot of it?" asked Dick. "I aint much
+on figgers yet, you know."
+
+"It makes twenty-five dollars and thirty-five cents, Dick," said his
+companion, who did not understand the thought which suggested the
+question.
+
+"Take it, and buy some clothes, Henry," said Dick, shortly.
+
+"What, your money too?"
+
+"In course."
+
+"No, Dick, you are too generous. I couldn't think of it. Almost
+three-quarters of the money is yours. You must spend it on
+yourself."
+
+"I don't need it," said Dick.
+
+"You may not need it now, but you will some time."
+
+"I shall have some more then."
+
+"That may be; but it wouldn't be fair for me to use your money,
+Dick. I thank you all the same for your kindness."
+
+"Well, I'll lend it to you, then," persisted Dick, "and you can pay
+me when you get to be a rich merchant."
+
+"But it isn't likely I ever shall be one."
+
+"How d'you know? I went to a fortun' teller once, and she told me I
+was born under a lucky star with a hard name, and I should have a
+rich man for my particular friend, who would make my fortun'. I
+guess you are going to be the rich man."
+
+Fosdick laughed, and steadily refused for some time to avail himself
+of Dick's generous proposal; but at length, perceiving that our hero
+seemed much disappointed, and would be really glad if his offer were
+accepted, he agreed to use as much as might be needful.
+
+This at once brought back Dick's good-humor, and he entered
+with great enthusiasm into his friend's plans.
+
+The next day they withdrew the money from the bank, and, when
+business got a little slack, in the afternoon set out in search of
+a clothing store. Dick knew enough of the city to be able to find a
+place where a good bargain could be obtained. He was determined that
+Fosdick should have a good serviceable suit, even if it took all the
+money they had. The result of their search was that for twenty-three
+dollars Fosdick obtained a very neat outfit, including a couple of
+shirts, a hat, and a pair of shoes, besides a dark mixed suit, which
+appeared stout and of good quality.
+
+"Shall I sent the bundle home?" asked the salesman, impressed by the
+off-hand manner in which Dick drew out the money in payment for the
+clothes.
+
+"Thank you," said Dick, "you're very kind, but I'll take it home
+myself, and you can allow me something for my trouble."
+
+"All right," said the clerk, laughing; "I'll allow it on your next
+purchase."
+
+Proceeding to their apartment in Mott Street, Fosdick at once tried
+on his new suit, and it was found to be an excellent fit. Dick
+surveyed his new friend with much satisfaction.
+
+"You look like a young gentleman of fortun'," he said, "and do
+credit to your governor."
+
+"I suppose that means you, Dick," said Fosdick, laughing.
+
+"In course it does."
+
+"You should say _of_ course," said Fosdick, who, in virtue of his
+position as Dick's tutor, ventured to correct his language from time
+to time.
+
+"How dare you correct your gov'nor?" said Dick, with comic
+indignation. "'I'll cut you off with a shillin', you young dog,' as
+the Markis says to his nephew in the play at the Old Bowery."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+FOSDICK CHANGES HIS BUSINESS
+
+
+Fosdick did not venture to wear his new clothes while engaged in his
+business. This he felt would have been wasteful extravagance. About
+ten o'clock in the morning, when business slackened, he went home,
+and dressing himself went to a hotel where he could see copies of
+the "Morning Herald" and "Sun," and, noting down the places where a
+boy was wanted, went on a round of applications. But he found it no
+easy thing to obtain a place. Swarms of boys seemed to be out of
+employment, and it was not unusual to find from fifty to a hundred
+applicants for a single place.
+
+There was another difficulty. It was generally desired that the
+boy wanted should reside with his parents. When Fosdick, on being
+questioned, revealed the fact of his having no parents, and being
+a boy of the street, this was generally sufficient of itself to
+insure a refusal. Merchants were afraid to trust one who had led
+such a vagabond life. Dick, who was always ready for an emergency,
+suggested borrowing a white wig, and passing himself off for
+Fosdick's father or grandfather. But Henry thought this might be
+rather a difficult character for our hero to sustain. After fifty
+applications and as many failures, Fosdick began to get discouraged.
+There seemed to be no way out of his present business, for which he
+felt unfitted.
+
+"I don't know but I shall have to black boots all my life," he said,
+one day, despondently, to Dick.
+
+"Keep a stiff upper lip," said Dick. "By the time you get to be a
+gray-headed veteran, you may get a chance to run errands for some
+big firm on the Bowery, which is a very cheerin' reflection."
+
+So Dick by his drollery and perpetual good spirits kept up
+Fosdick's courage.
+
+"As for me," said Dick, "I expect by that time to lay up a colossal
+fortun' out of shines, and live in princely style on the Avenoo."
+
+But one morning, Fosdick, straying into French's Hotel, discovered
+the following advertisement in the columns of "The Herald,"--
+
+"WANTED--A smart, capable boy to run errands, and make himself
+generally useful in a hat and cap store. Salary three dollars a
+week at first. Inquire at No. -- Broadway, after ten o'clock, A.M."
+
+He determined to make application, and, as the City Hall clock just
+then struck the hour indicated, lost no time in proceeding to the
+store, which was only a few blocks distant from the Astor House.
+It was easy to find the store, as from a dozen to twenty boys were
+already assembled in front of it. They surveyed each other askance,
+feeling that they were rivals, and mentally calculating each other's
+chances.
+
+"There isn't much chance for me," said Fosdick to Dick, who had
+accompanied him. "Look at all these boys. Most of them have good
+homes, I suppose, and good recommendations, while I have nobody to
+refer to."
+
+"Go ahead," said Dick. "Your chance is as good as anybody's."
+
+While this was passing between Dick and his companion, one of the
+boys, a rather supercilious-looking young gentleman, genteelly
+dressed, and evidently having a very high opinion of his dress and
+himself turned suddenly to Dick, and remarked,--
+
+"I've seen you before."
+
+"Oh, have you?" said Dick, whirling round; "then p'r'aps you'd like
+to see me behind."
+
+At this unexpected answer all the boys burst into a laugh with the
+exception of the questioner, who, evidently, considered that Dick
+had been disrespectful.
+
+"I've seen you somewhere," he said, in a surly tone, correcting
+himself.
+
+"Most likely you have," said Dick. "That's where I generally keep
+myself."
+
+There was another laugh at the expense of Roswell Crawford, for that
+was the name of the young aristocrat. But he had his revenge ready.
+No boy relishes being an object of ridicule, and it was with a
+feeling of satisfaction that he retorted,--
+
+"I know you for all your impudence. You're nothing but a
+boot-black."
+
+This information took the boys who were standing around by surprise,
+for Dick was well-dressed, and had none of the implements of his
+profession with him.
+
+"S'pose I be," said Dick. "Have you got any objection?"
+
+"Not at all," said Roswell, curling his lip; "only you'd better
+stick to blacking boots, and not try to get into a store."
+
+"Thank you for your kind advice," said Dick. "Is it gratooitous, or
+do you expect to be paid for it?"
+
+"You're an impudent fellow."
+
+"That's a very cheerin' reflection," said Dick, good-naturedly.
+
+"Do you expect to get this place when there's gentlemen's sons
+applying for it? A boot-black in a store! That would be a good
+joke."
+
+Boys as well as men are selfish, and, looking upon Dick as a
+possible rival, the boys who listened seemed disposed to take the
+same view of the situation.
+
+"That's what I say," said one of them, taking sides with Roswell.
+
+"Don't trouble yourselves," said Dick. "I aint agoin' to cut you
+out. I can't afford to give up a independent and loocrative
+purfession for a salary of three dollars a week."
+
+"Hear him talk!" said Roswell Crawford, with an unpleasant sneer.
+"If you are not trying to get the place, what are you here for?"
+
+"I came with a friend of mine," said Dick, indicating Fosdick,
+"who's goin' in for the situation."
+
+"Is he a boot-black, too?" demanded Roswell, superciliously.
+
+"He!" retorted Dick, loftily. "Didn't you know his father was a
+member of Congress, and intimately acquainted with all the biggest
+men in the State?"
+
+The boys surveyed Fosdick as if they did not quite know whether to
+credit this statement, which, for the credit of Dick's veracity, it
+will be observed he did not assert, but only propounded in the form
+of a question. There was no time for comment, however, as just then
+the proprietor of the store came to the door, and, casting his eyes
+over the waiting group, singled out Roswell Crawford, and asked him
+to enter.
+
+"Well, my lad, how old are you?"
+
+"Fourteen years old," said Roswell, consequentially.
+
+"Are your parents living?"
+
+"Only my mother. My father is dead. He was a gentleman," he added,
+complacently.
+
+"Oh, was he?" said the shop-keeper. "Do you live in the city?"
+
+"Yes, sir. In Clinton Place."
+
+"Have you ever been in a situation before?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said Roswell, a little reluctantly.
+
+"Where was it?"
+
+"In an office on Dey Street."
+
+"How long were you there?"
+
+"A week."
+
+"It seems to me that was a short time. Why did you not stay longer?"
+
+"Because," said Roswell, loftily, "the man wanted me to get to the
+office at eight o'clock, and make the fire. I'm a gentleman's son,
+and am not used to such dirty work."
+
+"Indeed!" said the shop-keeper. "Well, young gentleman, you may step
+aside a few minutes. I will speak with some of the other boys before
+making my selection."
+
+Several other boys were called in and questioned. Roswell stood by
+and listened with an air of complacency. He could not help thinking
+his chances the best. "The man can see I'm a gentleman, and will do
+credit to his store," he thought.
+
+At length it came to Fosdick's turn. He entered with no very
+sanguine anticipations of success. Unlike Roswell, he set a very low
+estimate upon his qualifications when compared with those of other
+applicants. But his modest bearing, and quiet, gentlemanly manner,
+entirely free from pretension, prepossessed the shop-keeper, who was
+a sensible man, in his favor.
+
+"Do you reside in the city?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, sir," said Henry.
+
+"What is your age?"
+
+"Twelve."
+
+"Have you ever been in any situation?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"I should like to see a specimen of your handwriting.
+Here, take the pen and write your name."
+
+Henry Fosdick had a very handsome handwriting for a boy of his age,
+while Roswell, who had submitted to the same test, could do little
+more than scrawl.
+
+"Do you reside with your parents?"
+
+"No, sir, they are dead."
+
+"Where do you live, then?"
+
+"In Mott Street."
+
+Roswell curled his lip when this name was pronounced, for Mott
+Street, as my New York readers know, is in the immediate
+neighborhood of the Five-Points, and very far from a fashionable
+locality.
+
+"Have you any testimonials to present?" asked Mr. Henderson, for
+that was his name.
+
+Fosdick hesitated. This was the question which he had foreseen would
+give him trouble.
+
+But at this moment it happened most opportunely that Mr. Greyson
+entered the shop with the intention of buying a hat.
+
+"Yes," said Fosdick, promptly; "I will refer to this gentleman."
+
+"How do you do, Fosdick?" asked Mr. Greyson, noticing him for the
+first time. "How do you happen to be here?"
+
+"I am applying for a place, sir," said Fosdick. "May I refer the
+gentleman to you?"
+
+"Certainly, I shall be glad to speak a good word for you. Mr.
+Henderson, this is a member of my Sunday-school class, of whose good
+qualities and good abilities I can speak confidently."
+
+"That will be sufficient," said the shop-keeper, who knew Mr.
+Greyson's high character and position. "He could have no better
+recommendation. You may come to the store to-morrow morning at half
+past seven o'clock. The pay will be three dollars a week for the
+first six months. If I am satisfied with you, I shall then raise
+it to five dollars."
+
+The other boys looked disappointed, but none more so than Roswell
+Crawford. He would have cared less if any one else had obtained the
+situation; but for a boy who lived in Mott Street to be preferred
+to him, a gentleman's son, he considered indeed humiliating. In a
+spirit of petty spite, he was tempted to say,
+
+"He's a boot-black. Ask him if he isn't."
+
+"He's an honest and intelligent lad," said Mr. Greyson. "As for you,
+young man, I only hope you have one-half his good qualities."
+
+Roswell Crawford left the store in disgust, and the other
+unsuccessful applicants with him.
+
+"What luck, Fosdick?" asked Dick, eagerly, as his friend came out of
+the store.
+
+"I've got the place," said Fosdick, in accents of satisfaction; "but
+it was only because Mr. Greyson spoke up for me."
+
+"He's a trump," said Dick, enthusiastically.
+
+The gentleman, so denominated, came out before the boys went away,
+and spoke with them kindly.
+
+Both Dick and Henry were highly pleased at the success of the
+application. The pay would indeed be small, but, expended
+economically, Fosdick thought he could get along on it, receiving
+his room rent, as before, in return for his services as Dick's
+private tutor. Dick determined, as soon as his education would
+permit, to follow his companion's example.
+
+"I don't know as you'll be willin' to room with a boot-black," he
+said, to Henry, "now you're goin' into business."
+
+"I couldn't room with a better friend, Dick," said Fosdick,
+affectionately, throwing his arm round our hero. "When we part,
+it'll be because you wish it."
+
+So Fosdick entered upon a new career.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+NINE MONTHS LATER
+
+
+The next morning Fosdick rose early, put on his new suit, and, after
+getting breakfast, set out for the Broadway store in which he had
+obtained a position. He left his little blacking-box in the room.
+
+"It'll do to brush my own shoes," he said. "Who knows but I may have
+to come back to it again?"
+
+"No danger," said Dick; "I'll take care of the feet, and you'll have
+to look after the heads, now you're in a hat-store."
+
+"I wish you had a place too," said Fosdick.
+
+"I don't know enough yet," said Dick. "Wait till I've gradooated."
+
+"And can put A.B. after your name."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"It stands for Bachelor of Arts. It's a degree that students get
+when they graduate from college."
+
+"Oh," said Dick, "I didn't know but it meant A Boot-black. I can put
+that after my name now. Wouldn't Dick Hunter, A.B., sound tip-top?"
+
+"I must be going," said Fosdick. "It won't do for me to be late the
+very first morning."
+
+"That's the difference between you and me," said Dick. "I'm my own
+boss, and there aint no one to find fault with me if I'm late. But I
+might as well be goin' too. There's a gent as comes down to his
+store pretty early that generally wants a shine."
+
+The two boys parted at the Park. Fosdick crossed it, and proceeded
+to the hat-store, while Dick, hitching up his pants, began to look
+about him for a customer. It was seldom that Dick had to wait long.
+He was always on the alert, and if there was any business to do
+he was always sure to get his share of it. He had now a stronger
+inducement than ever to attend strictly to business; his little
+stock of money in the savings bank having been nearly exhausted by
+his liberality to his room-mate. He determined to be as economical
+as possible, and moreover to study as hard as he could, that he
+might be able to follow Fosdick's example, and obtain a place in
+a store or counting-room. As there were no striking incidents
+occurring in our hero's history within the next nine months, I
+propose to pass over that period, and recount the progress he made
+in that time.
+
+Fosdick was still at the hat-store, having succeeded in giving
+perfect satisfaction to Mr. Henderson. His wages had just been
+raised to five dollars a week. He and Dick still kept house together
+at Mrs. Mooney's lodging-house, and lived very frugally, so that
+both were able to save up money. Dick had been unusually successful
+in business. He had several regular patrons, who had been drawn to
+him by his ready wit, and quick humor, and from two of them he had
+received presents of clothing, which had saved him any expense on
+that score. His income had averaged quite seven dollars a week in
+addition to this. Of this amount he was now obliged to pay one
+dollar weekly for the room which he and Fosdick occupied, but he
+was still able to save one half the remainder. At the end of nine
+months therefore, or thirty-nine weeks, it will be seen that he had
+accumulated no less a sum than one hundred and seventeen dollars.
+Dick may be excused for feeling like a capitalist when he looked at
+the long row of deposits in his little bank-book. There were other
+boys in the same business who had earned as much money, but they
+had had little care for the future, and spent as they went along,
+so that few could boast a bank-account, however small.
+
+"You'll be a rich man some time, Dick," said Henry Fosdick,
+one evening.
+
+"And live on Fifth Avenoo," said Dick.
+
+"Perhaps so. Stranger things have happened."
+
+"Well," said Dick, "if such a misfortin' should come upon me I
+should bear it like a man. When you see a Fifth Avenoo manshun for
+sale for a hundred and seventeen dollars, just let me know and I'll
+buy it as an investment."
+
+"Two hundred and fifty years ago you might have bought one for that
+price, probably. Real estate wasn't very high among the Indians."
+
+"Just my luck," said Dick; "I was born too late. I'd orter have been
+an Indian, and lived in splendor on my present capital."
+
+"I'm afraid you'd have found your present business rather
+unprofitable at that time."
+
+But Dick had gained something more valuable than money. He had
+studied regularly every evening, and his improvement had been
+marvellous. He could now read well, write a fair hand, and had
+studied arithmetic as far as Interest. Besides this he had obtained
+some knowledge of grammar and geography. If some of my boy readers,
+who have been studying for years, and got no farther than this,
+should think it incredible that Dick, in less than a year, and
+studying evenings only, should have accomplished it, they must
+remember that our hero was very much in earnest in his desire to
+improve. He knew that, in order to grow up respectable, he must be
+well advanced, and he was willing to work. But then the reader must
+not forget that Dick was naturally a smart boy. His street education
+had sharpened his faculties, and taught him to rely upon himself. He
+knew that it would take him a long time to reach the goal which he
+had set before him, and he had patience to keep on trying. He knew
+that he had only himself to depend upon, and he determined to make
+the most of himself,--a resolution which is the secret of success
+in nine cases out of ten.
+
+"Dick," said Fosdick, one evening, after they had completed their
+studies, "I think you'll have to get another teacher soon."
+
+"Why?" asked Dick, in some surprise. "Have you been offered a more
+loocrative position?"
+
+"No," said Fosdick, "but I find I have taught you all I know myself.
+You are now as good a scholar as I am."
+
+"Is that true?" said Dick, eagerly, a flush of gratification
+coloring his brown cheek.
+
+"Yes," said Fosdick. "You've made wonderful progress. I propose,
+now that evening schools have begun, that we join one, and study
+together through the winter."
+
+"All right," said Dick. "I'd be willin' to go now; but when I first
+began to study I was ashamed to have anybody know that I was so
+ignorant. Do you really mean, Fosdick, that I know as much as you?"
+
+"Yes, Dick, it's true."
+
+"Then I've got you to thank for it," said Dick, earnestly. "You've
+made me what I am."
+
+"And haven't you paid me, Dick?"
+
+"By payin' the room-rent," said Dick, impulsively. "What's that? It
+isn't half enough. I wish you'd take half my money; you deserve it."
+
+"Thank you, Dick, but you're too generous. You've more than paid me.
+Who was it took my part when all the other boys imposed upon me? And
+who gave me money to buy clothes, and so got me my situation?"
+
+"Oh, that's nothing!" said Dick.
+
+"It's a great deal, Dick. I shall never forget it. But now it seems
+to me you might try to get a situation yourself."
+
+"Do I know enough?"
+
+"You know as much as I do."
+
+"Then I'll try," said Dick, decidedly.
+
+"I wish there was a place in our store," said Fosdick. "It would be
+pleasant for us to be together."
+
+"Never mind," said Dick; "there'll be plenty of other chances.
+P'r'aps A. T. Stewart might like a partner. I wouldn't ask more'n a
+quarter of the profits."
+
+"Which would be a very liberal proposal on your part," said Fosdick,
+smiling. "But perhaps Mr. Stewart might object to a partner living
+on Mott Street."
+
+"I'd just as lieves move to Fifth Avenoo," said Dick. "I aint got no
+prejudices in favor of Mott Street."
+
+"Nor I," said Fosdick, "and in fact I have been thinking it might be
+a good plan for us to move as soon as we could afford. Mrs. Mooney
+doesn't keep the room quite so neat as she might."
+
+"No," said Dick. "She aint got no prejudices against dirt. Look at
+that towel."
+
+Dick held up the article indicated, which had now seen service
+nearly a week, and hard service at that,--Dick's avocation causing
+him to be rather hard on towels.
+
+"Yes," said Fosdick, "I've got about tired of it. I guess we can
+find some better place without having to pay much more. When we
+move, you must let me pay my share of the rent."
+
+"We'll see about that," said Dick. "Do you propose to move to
+Fifth Avenoo?"
+
+"Not just at present, but to some more agreeable neighborhood than
+this. We'll wait till you get a situation, and then we can decide."
+
+A few days later, as Dick was looking about for customers in the
+neighborhood of the Park, his attention was drawn to a fellow
+boot-black, a boy about a year younger than himself, who appeared to
+have been crying.
+
+"What's the matter, Tom?" asked Dick. "Haven't you had luck to-day?"
+
+"Pretty good," said the boy; "but we're havin' hard times at home.
+Mother fell last week and broke her arm, and to-morrow we've got to
+pay the rent, and if we don't the landlord says he'll turn us out."
+
+"Haven't you got anything except what you earn?" asked Dick.
+
+"No," said Tom, "not now. Mother used to earn three or four dollars
+a week; but she can't do nothin' now, and my little sister and
+brother are too young."
+
+Dick had quick sympathies. He had been so poor himself, and
+obliged to submit to so many privations that he knew from personal
+experience how hard it was. Tom Wilkins he knew as an excellent boy
+who never squandered his money, but faithfully carried it home to
+his mother. In the days of his own extravagance and shiftlessness
+he had once or twice asked Tom to accompany him to the Old Bowery
+or Tony Pastor's, but Tom had always steadily refused.
+
+"I'm sorry for you, Tom," he said. "How much do you owe for rent?"
+
+"Two weeks now," said Tom.
+
+"How much is it a week?"
+
+"Two dollars a week--that makes four."
+
+"Have you got anything towards it?"
+
+"No; I've had to spend all my money for food for mother and the rest
+of us. I've had pretty hard work to do that. I don't know what we'll
+do. I haven't any place to go to, and I'm afraid mother'll get cold
+in her arm."
+
+"Can't you borrow the money somewhere?" asked Dick.
+
+Tom shook his head despondingly.
+
+"All the people I know are as poor as I am," said he. "They'd help
+me if they could, but it's hard work for them to get along
+themselves."
+
+"I'll tell you what, Tom," said Dick, impulsively, "I'll stand your
+friend."
+
+"Have you got any money?" asked Tom, doubtfully.
+
+"Got any money!" repeated Dick. "Don't you know that I run a bank on
+my own account? How much is it you need?"
+
+"Four dollars," said Tom. "If we don't pay that before to-morrow
+night, out we go. You haven't got as much as that, have you?"
+
+"Here are three dollars," said Dick, drawing out his pocket-book.
+"I'll let you have the rest to-morrow, and maybe a little more."
+
+"You're a right down good fellow, Dick," said Tom; "but won't you
+want it yourself?"
+
+"Oh, I've got some more," said Dick.
+
+"Maybe I'll never be able to pay you."
+
+"S'pose you don't," said Dick; "I guess I won't fail."
+
+"I won't forget it, Dick. I hope I'll be able to do somethin' for
+you sometime."
+
+"All right," said Dick. "I'd ought to help you. I haven't got no
+mother to look out for. I wish I had."
+
+There was a tinge of sadness in his tone, as he pronounced the last
+four words; but Dick's temperament was sanguine, and he never gave
+way to unavailing sadness. Accordingly he began to whistle as he
+turned away, only adding, "I'll see you to-morrow, Tom."
+
+The three dollars which Dick had handed to Tom Wilkins were his
+savings for the present week. It was now Thursday afternoon. His
+rent, which amounted to a dollar, he expected to save out of the
+earnings of Friday and Saturday. In order to give Tom the additional
+assistance he had promised, Dick would be obliged to have recourse
+to his bank-savings. He would not have ventured to trench upon it
+for any other reason but this. But he felt that it would be selfish
+to allow Tom and his mother to suffer when he had it in his power
+to relieve them. But Dick was destined to be surprised, and that in
+a disagreeable manner, when he reached home.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+DICK LOSES HIS BANK-BOOK
+
+
+It was hinted at the close of the last chapter that Dick was
+destined to be disagreeably surprised on reaching home.
+
+Having agreed to give further assistance to Tom Wilkins, he was
+naturally led to go to the drawer where he and Fosdick kept their
+bank-books. To his surprise and uneasiness _the drawer proved to be
+empty!_
+
+"Come here a minute, Fosdick," he said.
+
+"What's the matter, Dick?"
+
+"I can't find my bank-book, nor yours either. What's 'come of them?"
+
+"I took mine with me this morning, thinking I might want to put in a
+little more money. I've got it in my pocket, now."
+
+"But where's mine?" asked Dick, perplexed.
+
+"I don't know. I saw it in the drawer when I took mine this morning."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Yes, positive, for I looked into it to see how much you had got."
+
+"Did you lock it again?" asked Dick.
+
+"Yes; didn't you have to unlock it just now?"
+
+"So I did," said Dick. "But it's gone now. Somebody opened it with a
+key that fitted the lock, and then locked it ag'in."
+
+"That must have been the way."
+
+"It's rather hard on a feller," said Dick, who, for the first time
+since we became acquainted with him, began to feel down-hearted.
+
+"Don't give it up, Dick. You haven't lost the money, only the
+bank-book."
+
+"Aint that the same thing?"
+
+"No. You can go to the bank to-morrow morning, as soon as it opens,
+and tell them you have lost the book, and ask them not to pay the
+money to any one except yourself."
+
+"So I can," said Dick, brightening up. "That is, if the thief hasn't
+been to the bank to-day."
+
+"If he has, they might detect him by his handwriting."
+
+"I'd like to get hold of the one that stole it," said Dick,
+indignantly. "I'd give him a good lickin'."
+
+"It must have been somebody in the house. Suppose we go and see Mrs.
+Mooney. She may know whether anybody came into our room to-day."
+
+The two boys went downstairs, and knocked at the door of a little
+back sitting-room where Mrs. Mooney generally spent her evenings. It
+was a shabby little room, with a threadbare carpet on the floor, the
+walls covered with a certain large-figured paper, patches of which
+had been stripped off here and there, exposing the plaster, the
+remainder being defaced by dirt and grease. But Mrs. Mooney had one
+of those comfortable temperaments which are tolerant of dirt, and
+didn't mind it in the least. She was seated beside a small pine
+work-table, industriously engaged in mending stockings.
+
+"Good-evening, Mrs. Mooney," said Fosdick, politely.
+
+"Good-evening," said the landlady. "Sit down, if you can find
+chairs. I'm hard at work as you see, but a poor lone widder can't
+afford to be idle."
+
+"We can't stop long, Mrs. Mooney, but my friend here has had
+something taken from his room to-day, and we thought we'd come and
+see you about it."
+
+"What is it?" asked the landlady. "You don't think I'd take
+anything? If I am poor, it's an honest name I've always had, as all
+my lodgers can testify."
+
+"Certainly not, Mrs. Mooney; but there are others in the house that
+may not be honest. My friend has lost his bank-book. It was safe in
+the drawer this morning, but to-night it is not to be found."
+
+"How much money was there in it?" asked Mrs. Mooney.
+
+"Over a hundred dollars," said Fosdick.
+
+"It was my whole fortun'," said Dick. "I was goin' to buy a house
+next year."
+
+Mrs. Mooney was evidently surprised to learn the extent of Dick's
+wealth, and was disposed to regard him with increased respect.
+
+"Was the drawer locked?" she asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then it couldn't have been Bridget. I don't think she has any
+keys."
+
+"She wouldn't know what a bank-book was," said Fosdick. "You didn't
+see any of the lodgers go into our room to-day, did you?"
+
+"I shouldn't wonder if it was Jim Travis," said Mrs. Mooney, suddenly.
+
+This James Travis was a bar-tender in a low groggery in Mulberry
+Street, and had been for a few weeks an inmate of Mrs. Mooney's
+lodging-house. He was a coarse-looking fellow who, from his
+appearance, evidently patronized liberally the liquor he dealt out
+to others. He occupied a room opposite Dick's, and was often heard
+by the two boys reeling upstairs in a state of intoxication,
+uttering shocking oaths.
+
+This Travis had made several friendly overtures to Dick and his
+room-mate, and had invited them to call round at the bar-room where
+he tended, and take something. But this invitation had never been
+accepted, partly because the boys were better engaged in the
+evening, and partly because neither of them had taken a fancy to Mr.
+Travis; which certainly was not strange, for nature had not gifted
+him with many charms, either of personal appearance or manners. The
+rejection of his friendly proffers had caused him to take a dislike
+to Dick and Henry, whom he considered stiff and unsocial.
+
+"What makes you think it was Travis?" asked Fosdick. "He isn't at
+home in the daytime."
+
+"But he was to-day. He said he had got a bad cold, and had to come
+home for a clean handkerchief."
+
+"Did you see him?" asked Dick.
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Mooney. "Bridget was hanging out clothes, and I
+went to the door to let him in."
+
+"I wonder if he had a key that would fit our drawer," said Fosdick.
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Mooney. "The bureaus in the two rooms are just
+alike. I got 'em at auction, and most likely the locks is the same."
+
+"It must have been he," said Dick, looking towards Fosdick.
+
+"Yes," said Fosdick, "it looks like it."
+
+"What's to be done? That's what I'd like to know," said Dick. "Of
+course he'll say he hasn't got it; and he won't be such a fool as to
+leave it in his room."
+
+"If he hasn't been to the bank, it's all right," said Fosdick. "You
+can go there the first thing to-morrow morning, and stop their
+paying any money on it."
+
+"But I can't get any money on it myself," said Dick. "I told Tom
+Wilkins I'd let him have some more money to-morrow, or his sick
+mother'll have to turn out of their lodgin's."
+
+"How much money were you going to give him?"
+
+"I gave him three dollars to-day, and was goin' to give him two
+dollars to-morrow."
+
+"I've got the money, Dick. I didn't go to the bank this morning."
+
+"All right. I'll take it, and pay you back next week."
+
+"No, Dick; if you've given three dollars, you must let me give two."
+
+"No, Fosdick, I'd rather give the whole. You know I've got more
+money than you. No, I haven't, either," said Dick, the memory of his
+loss flashing upon him. "I thought I was rich this morning, but now
+I'm in destitoot circumstances."
+
+"Cheer up, Dick; you'll get your money back."
+
+"I hope so," said our hero, rather ruefully.
+
+The fact was, that our friend Dick was beginning to feel what is
+so often experienced by men who do business of a more important
+character and on a larger scale than he, the bitterness of a reverse
+of circumstances. With one hundred dollars and over carefully laid
+away in the savings bank, he had felt quite independent. Wealth is
+comparative, and Dick probably felt as rich as many men who are
+worth a hundred thousand dollars. He was beginning to feel the
+advantages of his steady self-denial, and to experience the
+pleasures of property. Not that Dick was likely to be unduly
+attached to money. Let it be said to his credit that it had never
+given him so much satisfaction as when it enabled him to help Tom
+Wilkins in his trouble.
+
+Besides this, there was another thought that troubled him. When he
+obtained a place he could not expect to receive as much as he was
+now making from blacking boots,--probably not more than three
+dollars a week,--while his expenses without clothing would amount to
+four dollars. To make up the deficiency he had confidently relied
+upon his savings, which would be sufficient to carry him along for a
+year, if necessary. If he should not recover his money, he would be
+compelled to continue a boot-black for at least six months longer;
+and this was rather a discouraging reflection. On the whole it is
+not to be wondered at that Dick felt unusually sober this evening,
+and that neither of the boys felt much like studying.
+
+The two boys consulted as to whether it would be best to speak to
+Travis about it. It was not altogether easy to decide. Fosdick was
+opposed to it.
+
+"It will only put him on his guard," said he, "and I don't see as it
+will do any good. Of course he will deny it. We'd better keep quiet,
+and watch him, and, by giving notice at the bank, we can make sure
+that he doesn't get any money on it. If he does present himself at
+the bank, they will know at once that he is a thief, and he can be
+arrested."
+
+This view seemed reasonable, and Dick resolved to adopt it. On the
+whole, he began to think prospects were brighter than he had at
+first supposed, and his spirits rose a little.
+
+"How'd he know I had any bank-book? That's what I can't make out,"
+he said.
+
+"Don't you remember?" said Fosdick, after a moment's thought, "we
+were speaking of our savings, two or three evenings since?"
+
+"Yes," said Dick.
+
+"Our door was a little open at the time, and I heard somebody come
+upstairs, and stop a minute in front of it. It must have been Jim
+Travis. In that way he probably found out about your money, and took
+the opportunity to-day to get hold of it."
+
+This might or might not be the correct explanation. At all events it
+seemed probable.
+
+The boys were just on the point of going to bed, later in the
+evening, when a knock was heard at the door, and, to their no little
+surprise, their neighbor, Jim Travis, proved to be the caller. He
+was a sallow-complexioned young man, with dark hair and bloodshot
+eyes.
+
+He darted a quick glance from one to the other as he entered, which
+did not escape the boys' notice.
+
+"How are ye, to-night?" he said, sinking into one of the two chairs
+with which the room was scantily furnished.
+
+"Jolly," said Dick. "How are you?"
+
+"Tired as a dog," was the reply. "Hard work and poor pay; that's the
+way with me. I wanted to go to the theater, to-night, but I was hard
+up, and couldn't raise the cash."
+
+Here he darted another quick glance at the boys; but neither
+betrayed anything.
+
+"You don't go out much, do you?" he said
+
+"Not much," said Fosdick. "We spend our evenings in study."
+
+"That's precious slow," said Travis, rather contemptuously. "What's
+the use of studying so much? You don't expect to be a lawyer, do
+you, or anything of that sort?"
+
+"Maybe," said Dick. "I haven't made up my mind yet. If my
+feller-citizens should want me to go to Congress some time, I
+shouldn't want to disapp'int 'em; and then readin' and writin'
+might come handy."
+
+"Well," said Travis, rather abruptly, "I'm tired and I guess
+I'll turn in."
+
+"Good-night," said Fosdick.
+
+The boys looked at each other as their visitor left the room.
+
+"He came in to see if we'd missed the bank-book," said Dick.
+
+"And to turn off suspicion from himself, by letting us know he had
+no money," added Fosdick.
+
+"That's so," said Dick. "I'd like to have searched them pockets
+of his."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+TRACKING THE THIEF
+
+
+Fosdick was right in supposing that Jim Travis had stolen the
+bank-book. He was also right in supposing that that worthy young
+man had come to the knowledge of Dick's savings by what he had
+accidentally overheard. Now, Travis, like a very large number of
+young men of his class, was able to dispose of a larger amount of
+money than he was able to earn. Moreover, he had no great fancy for
+work at all, and would have been glad to find some other way of
+obtaining money enough to pay his expenses. He had recently received
+a letter from an old companion, who had strayed out to California,
+and going at once to the mines had been lucky enough to get
+possession of a very remunerative claim. He wrote to Travis that he
+had already realized two thousand dollars from it, and expected to
+make his fortune within six months.
+
+Two thousand dollars! This seemed to Travis a very large sum, and
+quite dazzled his imagination. He was at once inflamed with the
+desire to go out to California and try his luck. In his present
+situation he only received thirty dollars a month, which was
+probably all that his services were worth, but went a very little
+way towards gratifying his expensive tastes. Accordingly he
+determined to take the next steamer to the land of gold, if he
+could possibly manage to get money enough to pay the passage.
+
+The price of a steerage passage at that time was seventy-five
+dollars,--not a large sum, certainly,--but it might as well have
+been seventy-five hundred for any chance James Travis had of raising
+the amount at present. His available funds consisted of precisely
+two dollars and a quarter; of which sum, one dollar and a half was
+due to his washerwoman. This, however, would not have troubled
+Travis much, and he would conveniently have forgotten all about it;
+but, even leaving this debt unpaid, the sum at his command would not
+help him materially towards paying his passage money.
+
+Travis applied for help to two or three of his companions; but they
+were all of that kind who never keep an account with savings banks,
+but carry all their spare cash about with them. One of these friends
+offered to lend him thirty-seven cents, and another a dollar; but
+neither of these offers seemed to encourage him much. He was about
+giving up his project in despair, when he learned, accidentally, as
+we have already said, the extent of Dick's savings.
+
+One hundred and seventeen dollars! Why, that would not only pay his
+passage, but carry him up to the mines, after he had arrived in San
+Francisco. He could not help thinking it over, and the result of
+this thinking was that he determined to borrow it of Dick without
+leave. Knowing that neither of the boys were in their room in the
+daytime, he came back in the course of the morning, and, being
+admitted by Mrs. Mooney herself, said, by way of accounting for his
+presence, that he had a cold, and had come back for a handkerchief.
+The landlady suspected nothing, and, returning at once to her work
+in the kitchen, left the coast clear.
+
+Travis at once entered Dick's room, and, as there seemed to be no
+other place for depositing money, tried the bureau-drawers. They
+were all readily opened, except one, which proved to be locked. This
+he naturally concluded must contain the money, and going back to his
+own chamber for the key of the bureau, tried it on his return, and
+found to his satisfaction that it would fit. When he discovered the
+bank-book, his joy was mingled with disappointment. He had expected
+to find bank-bills instead. This would have saved all further
+trouble, and would have been immediately available. Obtaining money
+at the savings bank would involve fresh risk. Travis hesitated
+whether to take it or not; but finally decided that it would be
+worth the trouble and hazard.
+
+He accordingly slipped the book into his pocket, locked the drawer
+again, and, forgetting all about the handkerchief for which he had
+come home went downstairs, and into the street.
+
+There would have been time to go to the savings bank that day, but
+Travis had already been absent from his place of business some time,
+and did not venture to take the additional time required. Besides,
+not being very much used to savings banks, never having had occasion
+to use them, he thought it would be more prudent to look over the
+rules and regulations, and see if he could not get some information
+as to the way he ought to proceed. So the day passed, and Dick's
+money was left in safety at the bank.
+
+In the evening, it occurred to Travis that it might be well to find
+out whether Dick had discovered his loss. This reflection it was
+that induced the visit which is recorded at the close of the last
+chapter. The result was that he was misled by the boys' silence on
+the subject, and concluded that nothing had yet been discovered.
+
+"Good!" thought Travis, with satisfaction. "If they don't find out
+for twenty-four hours, it'll be too late, then, and I shall be all
+right."
+
+There being a possibility of the loss being discovered before the
+boys went out in the morning, Travis determined to see them at that
+time, and judge whether such was the case. He waited, therefore,
+until he heard the boys come out, and then opened his own door.
+
+"Morning, gents," said he, sociably. "Going to business?"
+
+"Yes," said Dick. "I'm afraid my clerks'll be lazy if I aint
+on hand."
+
+"Good joke!" said Travis. "If you pay good wages, I'd like to speak
+for a place."
+
+"I pay all I get myself," said Dick. "How's business with you?"
+
+"So so. Why don't you call round, some time?"
+
+"All my evenin's is devoted to literatoor and science," said Dick.
+"Thank you all the same."
+
+"Where do you hang out?" inquired Travis, in choice language,
+addressing Fosdick.
+
+"At Henderson's hat and cap store, on Broadway."
+
+"I'll look in upon you some time when I want a tile," said Travis.
+"I suppose you sell cheaper to your friends."
+
+"I'll be as reasonable as I can," said Fosdick, not very cordially;
+for he did not much fancy having it supposed by his employer that
+such a disreputable-looking person as Travis was a friend of his.
+
+However, Travis had no idea of showing himself at the Broadway
+store, and only said this by way of making conversation, and
+encouraging the boys to be social.
+
+"You haven't any of you gents seen a pearl-handled knife, have you?"
+he asked.
+
+"No," said Fosdick; "have you lost one?"
+
+"Yes," said Travis, with unblushing falsehood. "I left it on my
+bureau a day or two since. I've missed one or two other little
+matters. Bridget don't look to me any too honest. Likely she's
+got 'em."
+
+"What are you goin' to do about it?" said Dick.
+
+"I'll keep mum unless I lose something more, and then I'll kick up a
+row, and haul her over the coals. Have you missed anything?"
+
+"No," said Fosdick, answering for himself, as he could do without
+violating the truth.
+
+There was a gleam of satisfaction in the eyes of Travis, as he heard
+this.
+
+"They haven't found it out yet," he thought. "I'll bag the money
+to-day, and then they may whistle for it."
+
+Having no further object to serve in accompanying the boys, he bade
+them good-morning, and turned down another street.
+
+"He's mighty friendly all of a sudden," said Dick.
+
+"Yes," said Fosdick; "it's very evident what it all means. He wants
+to find out whether you have discovered your loss or not."
+
+"But he didn't find out."
+
+"No; we've put him on the wrong track. He means to get his money
+to-day, no doubt."
+
+"My money," suggested Dick.
+
+"I accept the correction," said Fosdick.
+
+"Of course, Dick, you'll be on hand as soon as the bank opens."
+
+"In course I shall. Jim Travis'll find he's walked into the
+wrong shop."
+
+"The bank opens at ten o'clock, you know."
+
+"I'll be there on time."
+
+The two boys separated.
+
+"Good luck, Dick," said Fosdick, as he parted from him. "It'll all
+come out right, I think."
+
+"I hope 'twill," said Dick.
+
+He had recovered from his temporary depression, and made up his mind
+that the money would be recovered. He had no idea of allowing
+himself to be outwitted by Jim Travis, and enjoyed already, in
+anticipation, the pleasure of defeating his rascality.
+
+It wanted two hours and a half yet to ten o'clock, and this time to
+Dick was too precious to be wasted. It was the time of his greatest
+harvest. He accordingly repaired to his usual place of business,
+succeeded in obtaining six customers, which yielded him sixty cents.
+He then went to a restaurant, and got some breakfast. It was now
+half-past nine, and Dick, feeling that it wouldn't do to be late,
+left his box in charge of Johnny Nolan, and made his way to the
+bank.
+
+The officers had not yet arrived, and Dick lingered on the outside,
+waiting till they should come. He was not without a little
+uneasiness, fearing that Travis might be as prompt as himself, and
+finding him there, might suspect something, and so escape the snare.
+But, though looking cautiously up and down the street, he could
+discover no traces of the supposed thief. In due time ten o'clock
+struck, and immediately afterwards the doors of the bank were thrown
+open, and our hero entered.
+
+As Dick had been in the habit of making a weekly visit for the last
+nine months, the cashier had come to know him by sight.
+
+"You're early, this morning, my lad," he said, pleasantly. "Have you
+got some more money to deposit? You'll be getting rich, soon."
+
+"I don't know about that," said Dick. "My bank-book's been stole."
+
+"Stolen!" echoed the cashier. "That's unfortunate. Not so bad as it
+might be, though. The thief can't collect the money."
+
+"That's what I came to see about," said Dick. "I was afraid he might
+have got it already."
+
+"He hasn't been here yet. Even if he had, I remember you, and should
+have detected him. When was it taken?"
+
+"Yesterday," said Dick. "I missed it in the evenin' when I
+got home."
+
+"Have you any suspicion as to the person who took it?" asked
+the cashier.
+
+Dick thereupon told all he knew as to the general character and
+suspicious conduct of Jim Travis, and the cashier agreed with him
+that he was probably the thief. Dick also gave his reason for
+thinking that he would visit the bank that morning, to withdraw
+the funds.
+
+"Very good," said the cashier. "We'll be ready for him. What is the
+number of your book?"
+
+"No. 5,678," said Dick.
+
+"Now give me a litttle description of this Travis whom you suspect."
+
+Dick accordingly furnished a brief outline sketch of Travis, not
+particularly complimentary to the latter.
+
+"That will answer. I think I shall know him," said the cashier. "You
+may depend upon it that he shall receive no money on your account."
+
+"Thank you," said Dick.
+
+Considerably relieved in mind, our hero turned towards the door,
+thinking that there would be nothing gained by his remaining longer,
+while he would of course lose time.
+
+He had just reached the doors, which were of glass, when through
+them he perceived James Travis himself just crossing the street, and
+apparently coming towards the bank. It would not do, of course, for
+him to be seen.
+
+"Here he is," he exclaimed, hurrying back. "Can't you hide me
+somewhere? I don't want to be seen."
+
+The cashier understood at once how the land lay. He quickly opened a
+little door, and admitted Dick behind the counter.
+
+"Stoop down," he said, "so as not to be seen."
+
+Dick had hardly done so when Jim Travis opened the outer door,
+and, looking about him in a little uncertainty, walked up to the
+cashier's desk.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+TRAVIS IS ARRESTED
+
+
+Jim Travis advanced into the bank with a doubtful step, knowing well
+that he was on a dishonest errand, and heartily wishing that he
+were well out of it. After a little hesitation, he approached the
+paying-teller, and, exhibiting the bank-book, said, "I want to get
+my money out."
+
+The bank-officer took the book, and, after looking at it a moment,
+said, "How much do you want?"
+
+"The whole of it," said Travis.
+
+"You can draw out any part of it, but to draw out the whole requires
+a week's notice."
+
+"Then I'll take a hundred dollars."
+
+"Are you the person to whom the book belongs?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said Travis, without hesitation.
+
+"Your name is--"
+
+"Hunter."
+
+The bank-clerk went to a large folio volume, containing the names of
+depositors, and began to turn over the leaves. While he was doing
+this, he managed to send out a young man connected with the bank for
+a policeman. Travis did not perceive this, or did not suspect that
+it had anything to do with himself. Not being used to savings banks,
+he supposed the delay only what was usual. After a search, which was
+only intended to gain time that a policeman might be summoned, the
+cashier came back, and, sliding out a piece of paper to Travis,
+said, "It will be necessary for you to write an order for the money."
+
+Travis took a pen, which he found on the ledge outside, and wrote
+the order, signing his name "Dick Hunter," having observed that name
+on the outside of the book.
+
+"Your name is Dick Hunter, then?" said the cashier, taking the
+paper, and looking at the thief over his spectacles.
+
+"Yes," said Travis, promptly.
+
+"But," continued the cashier, "I find Hunter's age is put down on
+the bank-book as fourteen. Surely you must be more than that."
+
+Travis would gladly have declared that he was only fourteen; but,
+being in reality twenty-three, and possessing a luxuriant pair of
+whiskers, this was not to be thought of. He began to feel uneasy.
+
+"Dick Hunter's my younger brother," he said. "I'm getting out the
+money for him."
+
+"I thought you said your own name was Dick Hunter," said the cashier.
+
+"I said my name was Hunter," said Travis, ingeniously. "I didn't
+understand you."
+
+"But you've signed the name of Dick Hunter to this order. How is
+that?" questioned the troublesome cashier.
+
+Travis saw that he was getting himself into a tight place; but his
+self-possession did not desert him.
+
+"I thought I must give my brother's name," he answered.
+
+"What is your own name?"
+
+"Henry Hunter."
+
+"Can you bring any one to testify that the statement you are
+making is correct?"
+
+"Yes, a dozen if you like," said Travis, boldly. "Give me the book,
+and I'll come back this afternoon. I didn't think there'd be such a
+fuss about getting out a little money."
+
+"Wait a moment. Why don't your brother come himself?"
+
+"Because he's sick. He's down with the measles," said Travis.
+
+Here the cashier signed to Dick to rise and show himself. Our hero
+accordingly did so.
+
+"You will be glad to find that he has recovered," said the cashier,
+pointing to Dick.
+
+With an exclamation of anger and dismay, Travis, who saw the game
+was up, started for the door, feeling that safety made such a course
+prudent. But he was too late. He found himself confronted by a burly
+policeman, who seized him by the arm, saying, "Not so fast, my man.
+I want you."
+
+"Let me go," exclaimed Travis, struggling to free himself.
+
+"I'm sorry I can't oblige you," said the officer. "You'd better not
+make a fuss, or I may have to hurt you a little."
+
+Travis sullenly resigned himself to his fate, darting a look of rage
+at Dick, whom he considered the author of his present misfortune.
+
+"This is your book," said the cashier, handing back his rightful
+property to our hero. "Do you wish to draw out any money?"
+
+"Two dollars," said Dick.
+
+"Very well. Write an order for the amount."
+
+Before doing so, Dick, who now that he saw Travis in the power of
+the law began to pity him, went up to the officer, and said,--
+
+"Won't you let him go? I've got my bank-book back, and I don't want
+anything done to him."
+
+"Sorry I can't oblige you," said the officer; "but I'm not allowed
+to do it. He'll have to stand his trial."
+
+"I'm sorry for you, Travis," said Dick. "I didn't want you arrested.
+I only wanted my bank-book back."
+
+"Curse you!" said Travis, scowling vindictively. "Wait till I get
+free. See if I don't fix you."
+
+"You needn't pity him too much," said the officer. "I know him now.
+He's been to the Island before."
+
+"It's a lie," said Travis, violently.
+
+"Don't be too noisy, my friend," said the officer. "If you've got no
+more business here, we'll be going."
+
+He withdrew with the prisoner in charge, and Dick, having drawn his
+two dollars, left the bank. Notwithstanding the violent words the
+prisoner had used towards himself, and his attempted robbery, he
+could not help feeling sorry that he had been instrumental in
+causing his arrest.
+
+"I'll keep my book a little safer hereafter," thought Dick. "Now I
+must go and see Tom Wilkins."
+
+Before dismissing the subject of Travis and his theft, it may be
+remarked that he was duly tried, and, his guilt being clear, was
+sent to Blackwell's Island for nine months. At the end of that time,
+on his release, he got a chance to work his passage on a ship to
+San Francisco, where he probably arrived in due time. At any rate,
+nothing more has been heard of him, and probably his threat of
+vengence against Dick will never be carried into effect.
+
+Returning to the City Hall Park, Dick soon fell in with Tom Wilkins.
+
+"How are you, Tom?" he said. "How's your mother?"
+
+"She's better, Dick, thank you. She felt worried about bein' turned
+out into the street; but I gave her that money from you, and now she
+feels a good deal easier."
+
+"I've got some more for you, Tom," said Dick, producing a two-dollar
+bill from his pocket.
+
+"I ought not to take it from you, Dick."
+
+"Oh, it's all right, Tom. Don't be afraid."
+
+"But you may need it yourself."
+
+"There's plenty more where that came from."
+
+"Any way, one dollar will be enough. With that we can pay the rent."
+
+"You'll want the other to buy something to eat."
+
+"You're very kind, Dick."
+
+"I'd ought to be. I've only got myself to take care of."
+
+"Well, I'll take it for my mother's sake. When you want anything
+done just call on Tom Wilkins."
+
+"All right. Next week, if your mother doesn't get better, I'll give
+you some more."
+
+Tom thanked our hero very gratefully, and Dick walked away,
+feeling the self-approval which always accompanies a generous and
+disinterested action. He was generous by nature, and, before
+the period at which he is introduced to the reader's notice, he
+frequently treated his friends to cigars and oyster-stews. Sometimes
+he invited them to accompany him to the theatre at his expense. But
+he never derived from these acts of liberality the same degree of
+satisfaction as from this timely gift to Tom Wilkins. He felt that
+his money was well bestowed, and would save an entire family from
+privation and discomfort. Five dollars would, to be sure, make
+something of a difference in the mount of his savings. It was more
+than he was able to save up in a week. But Dick felt fully repaid
+for what he had done, and he felt prepared to give as much more,
+if Tom's mother should continue to be sick, and should appear to
+him to need it.
+
+Besides all this, Dick felt a justifiable pride in his financial
+ability to afford so handsome a gift. A year before, however much
+he might have desired to give, it would have been quite out of his
+power to give five dollars. His cash balance never reached that
+amount. It was seldom, indeed, that it equalled one dollar. In
+more ways than one Dick was beginning to reap the advantage of his
+self-denial and judicious economy.
+
+It will be remembered that when Mr. Whitney at parting with Dick
+presented him with five dollars, he told him that he might repay it
+to some other boy who was struggling upward. Dick thought of this,
+and it occurred to him that after all he was only paying up an old
+debt.
+
+When Fosdick came home in the evening, Dick announced his success
+in recovering his lost money, and described the manner it had been
+brought about.
+
+"You're in luck," said Fosdick. "I guess we'd better not trust the
+bureau-drawer again."
+
+"I mean to carry my book round with me," said Dick.
+
+"So shall I, as long as we stay at Mrs. Mooney's. I wish we were in
+a better place."
+
+"I must go down and tell her she needn't expect Travis back. Poor
+chap, I pity him!"
+
+Travis was never more seen in Mrs. Mooney's establishment. He was
+owing that lady for a fortnight's rent of his room, which prevented
+her feeling much compassion for him. The room was soon after let to
+a more creditable tenant who proved a less troublesome neighbor than
+his predecessor.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+DICK RECEIVES A LETTER
+
+
+It was about a week after Dick's recovery of his bank-book, that
+Fosdick brought home with him in the evening a copy of the "Daily
+Sun."
+
+"Would you like to see your name in print, Dick?" he asked.
+
+"Yes," said Dick, who was busy at the wash-stand, endeavoring to
+efface the marks which his day's work had left upon his hands. "They
+haven't put me up for mayor, have they? 'Cause if they have, I
+shan't accept. It would interfere too much with my private business."
+
+"No," said Fosdick, "they haven't put you up for office yet, though
+that may happen sometime. But if you want to see your name in print,
+here it is."
+
+Dick was rather incredulous, but, having dried his hands on the
+towel, took the paper, and following the directions of Fosdick's
+finger, observed in the list of advertised letters the name of
+"RAGGED DICK."
+
+"By gracious, so it is," said he. "Do you s'poseit means me?"
+
+"I don't know of any other Ragged Dick,--do you?"
+
+"No," said Dick, reflectively; "it must be me. But I don't know of
+anybody that would be likely to write to me."
+
+"Perhaps it is Frank Whitney," suggested Fosdick, after a little
+reflection. "Didn't he promise to write to you?"
+
+"Yes," said Dick, "and he wanted me to write to him."
+
+"Where is he now?"
+
+"He was going to a boarding-school in Connecticut, he said. The name
+of the town was Barnton."
+
+"Very likely the letter is from him."
+
+"I hope it is. Frank was a tip-top boy, and he was the first that
+made me ashamed of bein' so ignorant and dirty."
+
+"You had better go to the post-office to-morrow morning, and ask for
+the letter."
+
+"P'r'aps they won't give it to me."
+
+"Suppose you wear the old clothes you used to a year ago, when Frank
+first saw you? They won't have any doubt of your being Ragged Dick
+then."
+
+"I guess I will. I'll be sort of ashamed to be seen in 'em though,"
+said Dick, who had considerable more pride in a neat personal
+appearance than when we were first introduced to him.
+
+"It will be only for one day, or one morning," said Fosdick.
+
+"I'd do more'n that for the sake of gettin' a letter from Frank. I'd
+like to see him."
+
+The next morning, in accordance with the suggestion of Fosdick, Dick
+arrayed himself in the long disused Washington coat and Napoleon
+pants, which he had carefully preserved, for what reason he could
+hardly explain.
+
+When fairly equipped, Dick surveyed himself in the mirror,--if the
+little seven-by-nine-inch looking-glass, with which the room was
+furnished, deserved the name. The result of the survey was not on
+the whole a pleasing one. To tell the truth, Dick was quite ashamed
+of his appearance, and, on opening the chamber-door, looked around
+to see that the coast was clear, not being willing to have any of
+his fellow-boarders see him in his present attire.
+
+He managed to slip out into the street unobserved, and, after
+attending to two or three regular customers who came down-town
+early in the morning, he made his way down Nassau Street to the
+post-office. He passed along until he came to a compartment on
+which he read ADVERTISED LETTERS, and, stepping up to the little
+window, said,--
+
+"There's a letter for me. I saw it advertised in the 'Sun'
+yesterday."
+
+"What name?" demanded the clerk.
+
+"Ragged Dick," answered our hero.
+
+"That's a queer name," said the clerk, surveying him a little
+curiously. "Are you Ragged Dick?"
+
+"If you don't believe me, look at my clo'es," said Dick.
+
+"That's pretty good proof, certainly," said the clerk, laughing. "If
+that isn't your name, it deserves to be."
+
+"I believe in dressin' up to your name," said Dick.
+
+"Do you know any one in Barnton, Connecticut?" asked the clerk, who
+had by this time found the letter.
+
+"Yes," said Dick. "I know a chap that's at boardin'-school there."
+
+"It appears to be in a boy's hand. I think it must be yours."
+
+The letter was handed to Dick through the window. He received it
+eagerly, and drawing back so as not to be in the way of the throng
+who were constantly applying for letters, or slipping them into the
+boxes provided for them, hastily opened it, and began to read. As
+the reader may be interested in the contents of the letter as well
+as Dick, we transcribe it below.
+
+It was dated Barnton, Conn., and commenced thus,--
+
+
+"DEAR DICK,--You must excuse my addressing this letter to 'Ragged
+Dick'; but the fact is, I don't know what your last name is, nor
+where you live. I am afraid there is not much chance of your getting
+this letter; but I hope you will. I have thought of you very often,
+and wondered how you were getting along, and I should have written
+to you before if I had known where to direct.
+
+"Let me tell you a little about myself. Barnton is a very
+pretty country town, only about six miles from Hartford. The
+boarding-school which I attend is under the charge of Ezekiel
+Munroe, A.M. He is a man of about fifty, a graduate of Yale College,
+and has always been a teacher. It is a large two-story house, with
+an addition containing a good many small bed-chambers for the boys.
+There are about twenty of us, and there is one assistant teacher who
+teaches the English branches. Mr. Munroe, or Old Zeke, as we call
+him behind his back, teaches Latin and Greek. I am studying both
+these languages, because father wants me to go to college.
+
+"But you won't be interested in hearing about our studies. I will
+tell you how we amuse ourselves. There are about fifty acres of land
+belonging to Mr. Munroe; so that we have plenty of room for play.
+About a quarter of a mile from the house there is a good-sized pond.
+There is a large, round-bottomed boat, which is stout and strong.
+Every Wednesday and Saturday afternoon, when the weather is good, we
+go out rowing on the pond. Mr. Barton, the assistant teacher, goes
+with us, to look after us. In the summer we are allowed to go in
+bathing. In the winter there is splendid skating on the pond.
+
+"Besides this, we play ball a good deal, and we have various other
+plays. So we have a pretty good time, although we study pretty hard
+too. I am getting on very well in my studies. Father has not decided
+yet where he will send me to college.
+
+"I wish you were here, Dick. I should enjoy your company, and
+besides I should like to feel that you were getting an education. I
+think you are naturally a pretty smart boy; but I suppose, as you
+have to earn your own living, you don't get much chance to learn. I
+only wish I had a few hundred dollars of my own. I would have you
+come up here, and attend school with us. If I ever have a chance to
+help you in any way, you may be sure that I will.
+
+"I shall have to wind up my letter now, as I have to hand in a
+composition to-morrow, on the life and character of Washington. I
+might say that I have a friend who wears a coat that once belonged
+to the general. But I suppose that coat must be worn out by this
+time. I don't much like writing compositions. I would a good deal
+rather write letters.
+
+"I have written a longer letter than I meant to. I hope you will get
+it, though I am afraid not. If you do, you must be sure to answer
+it, as soon as possible. You needn't mind if your writing does look
+like 'hens-tracks,' as you told me once.
+
+"Good-by, Dick. You must always think of me, as your very true
+friend,
+
+"FRANK WHITNEY."
+
+
+Dick read this letter with much satisfaction. It is always pleasant
+to be remembered, and Dick had so few friends that it was more to
+him than to boys who are better provided. Again, he felt a new sense
+of importance in having a letter addressed to him. It was the first
+letter he had ever received. If it had been sent to him a year
+before, he would not have been able to read it. But now, thanks to
+Fosdick's instructions, he could not only read writing, but he could
+write a very good hand himself.
+
+There was one passage in the letter which pleased Dick. It was where
+Frank said that if he had the money he would pay for his education
+himself.
+
+"He's a tip-top feller," said Dick. "I wish I could see him ag'in."
+
+There were two reasons why Dick would like to have seen Frank. One
+was, the natural pleasure he would have in meeting a friend; but he
+felt also that he would like to have Frank witness the improvement
+he had made in his studies and mode of life.
+
+"He'd find me a little more 'spectable than when he first saw me,"
+thought Dick.
+
+Dick had by this time got up to Printing House Square. Standing on
+Spruce Street, near the "Tribune" office, was his old enemy, Micky
+Maguire.
+
+It has already been said that Micky felt a natural enmity towards
+those in his own condition in life who wore better clothes than
+himself. For the last nine months, Dick's neat appearance had
+excited the ire of the young Philistine. To appear in neat attire
+and with a clean face Micky felt was a piece of presumption, and an
+assumption of superiority on the part of our hero, and he termed it
+"tryin' to be a swell."
+
+Now his astonished eyes rested on Dick in his ancient attire, which
+was very similar to his own. It was a moment of triumph to him. He
+felt that "pride had had a fall," and he could not forbear reminding
+Dick of it.
+
+"Them's nice clo'es you've got on," said he, sarcastically, as Dick
+came up.
+
+"Yes," said Dick, promptly. "I've been employin' your tailor. If my
+face was only dirty we'd be taken for twin brothers."
+
+"So you've give up tryin' to be a swell?"
+
+"Only for this partic'lar occasion," said Dick. "I wanted to make a
+fashionable call, so I put on my regimentals."
+
+"I don't b'lieve you've got any better clo'es," said Micky.
+
+"All right," said Dick, "I won't charge you nothin' for what you
+believe."
+
+Here a customer presented himself for Micky, and Dick went back to
+his room to change his clothes, before resuming business.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+DICK WRITES HIS FIRST LETTER
+
+
+When Fosdick reached home in the evening, Dick displayed his letter
+with some pride.
+
+"It's a nice letter," said Fosdick, after reading it "I should like
+to know Frank."
+
+"I'll bet you would," said Dick. "He's a trump."
+
+"When are you going to answer it?"
+
+"I don't know," said Dick, dubiously. "I never writ a letter."
+
+"That's no reason why you shouldn't. There's always a first time,
+you know."
+
+"I don't know what to say," said Dick.
+
+"Get some paper and sit down to it, and you'll find enough to say.
+You can do that this evening instead of studying."
+
+"If you'll look it over afterwards, and shine it up a little."
+
+"Yes, if it needs it; but I rather think Frank would like it best
+just as you wrote it."
+
+Dick decided to adopt Fosdick's suggestion. He had very serious
+doubts as to his ability to write a letter. Like a good many other
+boys, he looked upon it as a very serious job, not reflecting that,
+after all, letter-writing is nothing but talking upon paper. Still,
+in spite of his misgivings, he felt that the letter ought to be
+answered, and he wished Frank to hear from him. After various
+preparations, he at last got setttled down to his task, and, before
+the evening was over, a letter was written. As the first letter
+which Dick had ever produced, and because it was characteristic
+of him, my readers may like to read it.
+
+Here it is,--
+
+
+"DEAR FRANK,--I got your letter this mornin', and was very glad to
+hear you hadn't forgotten Ragged Dick. I aint so ragged as I was.
+Openwork coats and trowsers has gone out of fashion. I put on the
+Washington coat and Napoleon pants to go to the post-office, for
+fear they wouldn't think I was the boy that was meant. On my way
+back I received the congratulations of my intimate friend, Micky
+Maguire, on my improved appearance.
+
+"I've give up sleepin' in boxes, and old wagons, findin' it didn't
+agree with my constitution. I've hired a room in Mott Street, and
+have got a private tooter, who rooms with me and looks after my
+studies in the evenin'. Mott Street aint very fashionable; but my
+manshun on Fifth Avenoo isn't finished yet, and I'm afraid it won't
+be till I'm a gray-haired veteran. I've got a hundred dollars
+towards it, which I've saved up from my earnin's. I haven't forgot
+what you and your uncle said to me, and I'm tryin' to grow up
+'spectable. I haven't been to Tony Pastor's, or the Old Bowery, for
+ever so long. I'd rather save up my money to support me in my old
+age. When my hair gets gray, I'm goin' to knock off blackin' boots,
+and go into some light, genteel employment, such as keepin' an
+apple-stand, or disseminatin' pea-nuts among the people.
+
+"I've got so as to read pretty well, so my tooter says. I've been
+studyin' geography and grammar also. I've made such astonishin'
+progress that I can tell a noun from a conjunction as far away as
+I can see 'em. Tell Mr. Munroe that if he wants an accomplished
+teacher in his school, he can send for me, and I'll come on by the
+very next train. Or, if he wants to sell out for a hundred dollars,
+I'll buy the whole concern, and agree to teach the scholars all I
+know myself in less than six months. Is teachin' as good business,
+generally speakin', as blackin' boots? My private tooter combines
+both, and is makin' a fortun' with great rapidity. He'll be as rich
+as Astor some time, _if he only lives long enough._
+
+"I should think you'd have a bully time at your school. I should
+like to go out in the boat, or play ball with you. When are you
+comin' to the city? I wish you'd write and let me know when you do,
+and I'll call and see you. I'll leave my business in the hands of my
+numerous clerks, and go round with you. There's lots of things you
+didn't see when you was here before. They're getting on fast at the
+Central Park. It looks better than it did a year ago.
+
+"I aint much used to writin' letters. As this is the first one I
+ever wrote, I hope you'll excuse the mistakes. I hope you'll write
+to me again soon. I can't write so good a letter as you; but, I'll
+do my best, as the man said when he was asked if he could swim over
+to Brooklyn backwards. Good-by, Frank. Thank you for all your
+kindness. Direct your next letter to No. -- Mott Street.
+
+  "Your true friend,
+  "DICK HUNTER,"
+
+
+When Dick had written the last word, he leaned back in his chair,
+and surveyed the letter with much satisfaction.
+
+"I didn't think I could have wrote such a long letter, Fosdick,"
+said he.
+
+"Written would be more grammatical, Dick," suggested his friend.
+
+"I guess there's plenty of mistakes in it," said Dick. "Just look at
+it, and see."
+
+Fosdick took the letter, and read it over carefully.
+
+"Yes, there are some mistakes," he said; "but it sounds so much like
+you that I think it would be better to let it go just as it is. It
+will be more likely to remind Frank of what you were when he first
+saw you."
+
+"Is it good enough to send?" asked Dick, anxiously.
+
+"Yes; it seems to me to be quite a good letter. It is written just
+as you talk. Nobody but you could have written such a letter, Dick.
+I think Frank will be amused at your proposal to come up there as
+teacher."
+
+"P'r'aps it would be a good idea for us to open a seleck school here
+in Mott Street," said Dick, humorously. "We could call it 'Professor
+Fosdick and Hunter's Mott Street Seminary.' Boot-blackin' taught by
+Professor Hunter."
+
+The evening was so far advanced that Dick decided to postpone
+copying his letter till the next evening. By this time he had come
+to have a very fair handwriting, so that when the letter was
+complete it really looked quite creditable, and no one would have
+suspected that it was Dick's first attempt in this line. Our hero
+surveyed it with no little complacency. In fact, he felt rather
+proud of it, since it reminded him of the great progress he had
+made. He carried it down to the post-office, and deposited it with
+his own hands in the proper box. Just on the steps of the building,
+as he was coming out, he met Johnny Nolan, who had been sent on an
+errand to Wall Street by some gentleman, and was just returning.
+
+"What are you doin' down here, Dick?" asked Johnny.
+
+"I've been mailin' a letter."
+
+"Who sent you?"
+
+"Nobody."
+
+"I mean, who writ the letter?"
+
+"I wrote it myself."
+
+"Can you write letters?" asked Johnny, in amazement.
+
+"Why shouldn't I?"
+
+"I didn't know you could write. I can't."
+
+"Then you ought to learn."
+
+"I went to school once; but it was too hard work, so I give it up."
+
+"You're lazy, Johnny,--that's what's the matter. How'd you ever
+expect to know anything, if you don't try?"
+
+"I can't learn."
+
+"You can, if you want to."
+
+Johnny Nolan was evidently of a different opinion. He was a
+good-natured boy, large of his age, with nothing particularly bad
+about him, but utterly lacking in that energy, ambition, and natural
+sharpness, for which Dick was distinguished. He was not adapted to
+succeed in the life which circumstances had forced upon him; for in
+the street-life of the metropolis a boy needs to be on the alert,
+and have all his wits about him, or he will find himself wholly
+distanced by his more enterprising competitors for popular favor. To
+succeed in his profession, humble as it is, a boot-black must depend
+upon the same qualities which gain success in higher walks in
+life. It was easy to see that Johnny, unless very much favored by
+circumstances, would never rise much above his present level. For
+Dick, we cannot help hoping much better things.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+AN EXCITING ADVENTURE
+
+
+Dick now began to look about for a position in a store or
+counting-room. Until he should obtain one he determined to devote
+half the day to blacking boots, not being willing to break in upon
+his small capital. He found that he could earn enough in half a day
+to pay all his necessary expenses, including the entire rent of the
+room. Fosdick desired to pay his half; but Dick steadily refused,
+insisting upon paying so much as compensation for his friend's
+services as instructor.
+
+It should be added that Dick's peculiar way of speaking and use of
+slang terms had been somewhat modified by his education and his
+intimacy with Henry Fosdick. Still he continued to indulge in them
+to some extent, especially when he felt like joking, and it was
+natural to Dick to joke, as my readers have probably found out by
+this time. Still his manners were considerably improved, so that he
+was more likely to obtain a situation than when first introduced
+to our notice.
+
+Just now, however, business was very dull, and merchants, instead of
+hiring new assistants, were disposed to part with those already in
+their employ. After making several ineffectual applications, Dick
+began to think he should be obliged to stick to his profession until
+the next season. But about this time something occurred which
+considerably improved his chances of preferment.
+
+This is the way it happened.
+
+As Dick, with a balance of more than a hundred dollars in the
+savings bank, might fairly consider himself a young man of property,
+he thought himself justified in occasionally taking a half holiday
+from business, and going on an excursion. On Wednesday afternoon
+Henry Fosdick was sent by his employer on an errand to that part of
+Brooklyn near Greenwood Cemetery. Dick hastily dressed himself in
+his best, and determined to accompany him.
+
+The two boys walked down to the South Ferry, and, paying their two
+cents each, entered the ferry boat. They remained at the stern, and
+stood by the railing, watching the great city, with its crowded
+wharves, receding from view. Beside them was a gentleman with two
+children,--a girl of eight and a little boy of six. The children
+were talking gayly to their father. While he was pointing out some
+object of interest to the little girl, the boy managed to creep,
+unobserved, beneath the chain that extends across the boat, for the
+protection of passengers, and, stepping incautiously to the edge
+of the boat, fell over into the foaming water.
+
+At the child's scream, the father looked up, and, with a cry of
+horror, sprang to the edge of the boat. He would have plunged in,
+but, being unable to swim, would only have endangered his own life,
+without being able to save his child.
+
+"My child!" he exclaimed in anguish,--"who will save my child? A
+thousand--ten thousand dollars to any one who will save him!"
+
+There chanced to be but few passengers on board at the time, and
+nearly all these were either in the cabins or standing forward.
+Among the few who saw the child fall was our hero.
+
+Now Dick was an expert swimmer. It was an accomplishment which he
+had possessed for years, and he no sooner saw the boy fall than he
+resolved to rescue him. His determination was formed before he heard
+the liberal offer made by the boy's father. Indeed, I must do Dick
+the justice to say that, in the excitement of the moment, he did not
+hear it at all, nor would it have stimulated the alacrity with which
+he sprang to the rescue of the little boy.
+
+Little Johnny had already risen once, and gone under for the second
+time, when our hero plunged in. He was obliged to strike out for
+the boy, and this took time. He reached him none too soon. Just as
+he was sinking for the third and last time, he caught him by the
+jacket. Dick was stout and strong, but Johnny clung to him so
+tightly, that it was with great difficulty he was able to sustain
+himself.
+
+"Put your arms round my neck," said Dick.
+
+The little boy mechanically obeyed, and clung with a grasp
+strengthened by his terror. In this position Dick could bear his
+weight better. But the ferry-boat was receding fast. It was quite
+impossible to reach it. The father, his face pale with terror and
+anguish, and his hands clasped in suspense, saw the brave boy's
+struggles, and prayed with agonizing fervor that he might be
+successful. But it is probable, for they were now midway of the
+river, that both Dick and the little boy whom he had bravely
+undertaken to rescue would have been drowned, had not a row-boat
+been fortunately near. The two men who were in it witnessed the
+accident, and hastened to the rescue of our hero.
+
+"Keep up a little longer," they shouted, bending to their oars,
+"and we will save you."
+
+Dick heard the shout, and it put fresh strength into him. He battled
+manfully with the treacherous sea, his eyes fixed longingly upon the
+approaching boat.
+
+"Hold on tight, little boy," he said. "There's a boat coming."
+
+The little boy did not see the boat. His eyes were closed to shut
+out the fearful water, but he clung the closer to his young
+preserver. Six long, steady strokes, and the boat dashed along side.
+Strong hands seized Dick and his youthful burden, and drew them into
+the boat, both dripping with water.
+
+"God be thanked!" exclaimed the father, as from the steamer he saw
+the child's rescue. "That brave boy shall be rewarded, if I
+sacrifice my whole fortune to compass it."
+
+"You've had a pretty narrow escape, young chap," said one of the
+boatmen to Dick. "It was a pretty tough job you undertook."
+
+"Yes," said Dick. "That's what I thought when I was in the water. If
+it hadn't been for you, I don't know what would have 'come of us."
+
+"Anyhow you're a plucky boy, or you wouldn't have dared to jump into
+the water after this little chap. It was a risky thing to do."
+
+"I'm used to the water," said Dick, modestly. "I didn't stop to
+think of the danger, but I wasn't going to see that little fellow
+drown without tryin' to save him."
+
+The boat at once headed for the ferry wharf on the Brooklyn side.
+The captain of the ferry-boat, seeing the rescue, did not think
+it necessary to stop his boat, but kept on his way. The whole
+occurrence took place in less time than I have occupied in
+telling it.
+
+The father was waiting on the wharf to receive his little boy, with
+what feelings of gratitude and joy can be easily understood. With a
+burst of happy tears he clasped him to his arms. Dick was about to
+withdraw modestly, but the gentleman perceived the movement, and,
+putting down the child, came forward, and, clasping his hand, said
+with emotion, "My brave boy, I owe you a debt I can never repay.
+But for your timely service I should now be plunged into an anguish
+which I cannot think of without a shudder."
+
+Our hero was ready enough to speak on most occasions, but always
+felt awkward when he was praised.
+
+"It wasn't any trouble," he said, modestly. "I can swim like a top."
+
+"But not many boys would have risked their lives for a stranger,"
+said the gentleman. "But," he added with a sudden thought, as his
+glance rested on Dick's dripping garments, "both you and my little
+boy will take cold in wet clothes. Fortunately I have a friend
+living close at hand, at whose house you will have an opportunity
+of taking off your clothes, and having them dried."
+
+Dick protested that he never took cold; but Fosdick, who had now
+joined them, and who, it is needless to say, had been greatly
+alarmed at Dick's danger, joined in urging compliance with the
+gentleman's proposal, and in the end our hero had to yield. His
+new friend secured a hack, the driver of which agreed for extra
+recompense to receive the dripping boys into his carriage, and they
+were whirled rapidly to a pleasant house in a side street, where
+matters were quickly explained, and both boys were put to bed.
+
+"I aint used to goin' to bed quite so early," thought Dick. "This is
+the queerest excursion I ever took."
+
+Like most active boys Dick did not enjoy the prospect of spending
+half a day in bed; but his confinement did not last as long as he
+anticipated.
+
+In about an hour the door of his chamber was opened, and a servant
+appeared, bringing a new and handsome suit of clothes throughout.
+
+"You are to put on these," said the servant to Dick; "but you
+needn't get up till you feel like it."
+
+"Whose clothes are they?" asked Dick.
+
+"They are yours."
+
+"Mine! Where did they come from?"
+
+"Mr. Rockwell sent out and bought them for you. They are the
+same size as your wet ones."
+
+"Is he here now?"
+
+"No. He bought another suit for the little boy, and has gone back to
+New York. Here's a note he asked me to give you."
+
+Dick opened the paper, and read as follows,--
+
+
+"Please accept this outfit of clothes as the first instalment of
+a debt which I can never repay. I have asked to have your wet suit
+dried, when you can reclaim it. Will you oblige me by calling
+to-morrow at my counting room, No. --, Pearl Street.
+
+  "Your friend,
+  "JAMES ROCKWELL."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+When Dick was dressed in his new suit, he surveyed his figure with
+pardonable complacency. It was the best he had ever worn, and fitted
+him as well as if it had been made expressly for him.
+
+"He's done the handsome thing," said Dick to himself; "but there
+wasn't no 'casion for his givin' me these clothes. My lucky stars
+are shinin' pretty bright now. Jumpin' into the water pays better
+than shinin' boots; but I don't think I'd like to try it more'n once
+a week."
+
+About eleven o'clock the next morning Dick repaired to Mr.
+Rockwell's counting-room on Pearl Street. He found himself in front
+of a large and handsome warehouse. The counting-room was on the
+lower floor. Our hero entered, and found Mr. Rockwell sitting at a
+desk. No sooner did that gentleman see him than he arose, and,
+advancing, shook Dick by the hand in the most friendly manner.
+
+"My young friend," he said, "you have done me so great service that
+I wish to be of some service to you in return. Tell me about
+yourself, and what plans or wishes you have formed for the future."
+
+Dick frankly related his past history, and told Mr. Rockwell of his
+desire to get into a store or counting-room, and of the failure of
+all his applications thus far. The merchant listened attentively to
+Dick's statement, and, when he had finished, placed a sheet of paper
+before him, and, handing him a pen, said, "Will you write your name
+on this piece of paper?"
+
+Dick wrote in a free, bold hand, the name Richard Hunter. He had
+very much improved in his penmanship, as has already been mentioned,
+and now had no cause to be ashamed of it.
+
+Mr. Rockwell surveyed it approvingly.
+
+"How would you like to enter my counting-room as clerk, Richard?" he
+asked.
+
+Dick was about to say "Bully," when he recollected himself, and
+answered, "Very much."
+
+"I suppose you know something of arithmetic, do you not?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Then you may consider yourself engaged at a salary of ten dollars a
+week. You may come next Monday morning."
+
+"Ten dollars!" repeated Dick, thinking he must have misunderstood.
+
+"Yes; will that be sufficient?"
+
+"It's more than I can earn," said Dick, honestly.
+
+"Perhaps it is at first," said Mr. Rockwell, smiling; "but I am
+willing to pay you that. I will besides advance you as fast as your
+progress will justify it."
+
+Dick was so elated that he hardly restrained himself from some
+demonstration which would have astonished the merchant; but he
+exercised self-control, and only said, "I'll try to serve you so
+faithfully, sir, that you won't repent having taken me into your
+service."
+
+"And I think you will succeed," said Mr. Rockwell, encouragingly. "I
+will not detain you any longer, for I have some important business
+to attend to. I shall expect to see you on Monday morning."
+
+Dick left the counting-room, hardly knowing whether he stood on his
+head or his heels, so overjoyed was he at the sudden change in his
+fortunes. Ten dollars a week was to him a fortune, and three times
+as much as he had expected to obtain at first. Indeed he would have
+been glad, only the day before, to get a place at three dollars a
+week. He reflected that with the stock of clothes which he had now
+on hand, he could save up at least half of it, and even then live
+better than he had been accustomed to do; so that his little fund in
+the savings bank, instead of being diminished, would be steadily
+increasing. Then he was to be advanced if he deserved it. It was
+indeed a bright prospect for a boy who, only a year before, could
+neither read nor write, and depended for a night's lodging upon
+the chance hospitality of an alley-way or old wagon. Dick's great
+ambition to "grow up 'spectable" seemed likely to be accomplished
+after all.
+
+"I wish Fosdick was as well off as I am," he thought generously. But
+he determined to help his less fortunate friend, and assist him up
+the ladder as he advanced himself.
+
+When Dick entered his room on Mott Street, he discovered that some
+one else had been there before him, and two articles of wearing
+apparel had disappeared.
+
+"By gracious!" he exclaimed; "somebody's stole my Washington coat
+and Napoleon pants. Maybe it's an agent of Barnum's, who expects to
+make a fortun' by exhibitin' the valooable wardrobe of a gentleman
+of fashion."
+
+Dick did not shed many tears over his loss, as, in his present
+circumstances, he never expected to have any further use for the
+well-worn garments. It may be stated that he afterwards saw them
+adorning the figure of Micky Maguire; but whether that estimable
+young man stole them himself, he never ascertained. As to the loss,
+Dick was rather pleased that it had occurred. It seemed to cut him
+off from the old vagabond life which he hoped never to resume.
+Henceforward he meant to press onward, and rise as high as possible.
+
+Although it was yet only noon, Dick did not go out again with his
+brush. He felt that it was time to retire from business. He would
+leave his share of the public patronage to other boys less fortunate
+than himself. That evening Dick and Fosdick had a long conversation.
+Fosdick rejoiced heartily in his friend's success, and on his side
+had the pleasant news to communicate that his pay had been advanced
+to six dollars a week.
+
+"I think we can afford to leave Mott Street now," he continued.
+"This house isn't as neat as it might be, and I shall like to live
+in a nicer quarter of the city."
+
+"All right," said Dick. "We'll hunt up a new room to-morrow. I shall
+have plenty of time, having retired from business. I'll try to get
+my reg'lar customers to take Johnny Nolan in my place. That boy
+hasn't any enterprise. He needs some body to look out for him."
+
+"You might give him your box and brush, too, Dick."
+
+"No," said Dick; "I'll give him some new ones, but mine I want
+to keep, to remind me of the hard times I've had, when I was an
+ignorant boot-black, and never expected to be anything better."
+
+"When, in short, you were 'Ragged Dick.' You must drop that name,
+and think of yourself now as"--
+
+"Richard Hunter, Esq.," said our hero, smiling.
+
+"A young gentleman on the way to fame and fortune," added Fosdick.
+
+
+                              -------
+
+
+Here ends the story of Ragged Dick. As Fosdick said, he is Ragged Dick
+no longer. He has taken a step upward, and is determined to mount still
+higher. There are fresh adventures in store for him, and for others who
+have been introduced in these pages. Those who have felt interested in
+his early life will find his history continued in a new volume, forming
+the second of the series, to be called,--
+
+FAME AND FORTUNE;
+
+OR,
+
+THE PROGRESS OF RICHARD HUNTER.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ragged Dick, by Horatio Alger
+
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