Ragged Dick, Or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-Blacks

in New York, Dick?" ask

ce I can

tle about yourself. Have yo

My father went to sea; but he went off before mother died, and noth

e of you when y

and they couldn't do much. When I was seven the woman died, and

ld!" exclaimed Fr

r to take care of myself, but," he cont

could

metimes I was a newsboy, and diffused intelligence among the masses, as I heard somebody say once in a bi

enterprise?" s

"but I give it u

at

t 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,

right, Dick

Dick; "but lots

t make it

r old gentleman,-a Englishman he was. He couldn't help cryin' to think the qu

id you

d 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 bur

mes, Dick," said Fra

ry and cold, with nothin' to eat or to warm me; but t

t's

d Dick. "It's mean a

ever tem

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 mo

u didn'

. 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 w

y long in the matc

s 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 witho

of meanness in the wo

d Dick, "there would be some chance for poor pe

ill be rich so

hook h

cating the one he had received from the dropper, "and will be

self, Dick," said Frank. "Stewa

n't

ng 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

a teacher, and I'm awf

needn't

an I h

u learn a

. It wouldn't do me much good if I learned to read and

ere no nigh

es

suppose you don't w

's the truth. But since I've got to talkin' with yo

'll make a smart man if you

so?" asked Dic

n him. I feel very much interested in you, Dick. You've had a hard time of it so far in life, but

I'm a pretty rough customer, but I aint as bad as some. I m

as you, Dick, that have grown up respectable and

to work har

ly work hard, but wo

the ri

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

, soberly. "I never th

till

severance," said Frank. "A yea

ee what I can do," sai