Jr. Horatio Alger

“ Neither was Roland liked, as much on his own account as on his father's, for he strutted about the village, turning up his nose at boys who would have been better off than himself in a worldly point of view but for his father's lucky marriage, and declining to engage in any game in which the first place was not accorded to him.
It was very different with Oliver. He was born to be popular. Though he possessed his share of pride, doubtless, he never showed it in an offensive manner. No poor boy ever felt ill at ease in his company. ”

“ This was a natural feeling, but there was another side to the question which Oliver did not consider. How many families in the great, gay city are compelled to live in miserable tenements, amid noise and vicious surroundings, who, on the same income, could live comfortably and independently in the country, breathing God's pure air, and with nothing to repel or disgust them?
"New York is rather a lively place, Oliver," said Mr. Kenyon, who read his young companion's thoughts. "I think you will like to live here." ”

“ Conrad presented herself, and said:
"I have heard of Florette's sickness, and I have come to help you."
"But do you know the danger?" asked the poor mother. "Do you know that her disease is contagious, and that you run the risk of taking it?"
"I know all, but life is not very precious to me. I love your little daughter, and I am willing to risk my life for her."
Mrs. Graham made no further opposition. In truth, she was glad and encouraged to find a friend who was willing to help her—more especially one whom the little girl loved nearly as much as herself. ”

“ If he is rich, I will strip him of his wealth; if he is respected and honored, I will bring a stain upon his name. I will do for him what he has done for me."
The provincialisms which at times disfigured his speech were dropped as he spoke of his enemy, and his face grew hard and his expression unrelenting.
"How he must hate this man!" thought Oliver.
They stepped into a grocery store on the way, and here Mr. Bundy enquired for Rupert Jones.
"Do you know any such man?" he asked.
"Oh, yes; he trades here."
Nicholas Bundy's face lighted up with joy. ”

“ The fact is, I sleep like a top all night. Never know anything from the minute I lie down till it's time to get up. Are you gentlemen good sleepers?"
"I sleep well," said Nicholas. "It's with me very much as it is with you."
"Of course you sleep well, my young friend," said the new acquaintance to Oliver. "Boys of your age ought not to wake up during the night."
"I believe I am a pretty good sleeper," said Oliver. "Why is he so particular about enquiring whether we sleep well?" thought our hero.
He was not particularly inclined to suspicion, but somehow he had never liked Mr. Denton. ”

“ OPEN REVOLT. B ENJAMIN Kenyon, the father of Roland and Oliver's step-father, was a man of fifty or more. He had a high narrow forehead, small eyes, and a scanty supply of coarse black hair rimming a bald crown with a fringe in the shape of a horse-shoe. His expression was crafty and insincere. A tolerable judge of physiognomy would at once pronounce him as a man not to be trusted. ”

“ It was useless to question her delusion, and Mrs. Kenyon contented herself with asking:
"Do you mean to leave this house?"
"Yes," said Cleopatra. "Antony expects me. Will you go with me? I will make you one of my maids of honor."
"Do you think we can get out?" asked Mrs. Kenyon dubiously. "The outer door is locked."
"I know where to find the key. Time presses. Will you go?"
Believing in the death of her son, Mrs. Kenyon had supposed herself indifferent to liberty, but now that the hope of escape was presented a wild desire to throw off the shackles of confinement came to her. ”

“ You will lose your life, to be sure, but what is a single life to the discovery of a great truth! Your name will live for ages in connection with the great principle which I shall have the honor of discovering."
"I would rather live myself," said Oliver bluntly. "Science may be all very well, but I prefer that somebody else should have the privilege of dying to promote it."
"They all say so," said the old man musingly. "No one has the noble courage to sacrifice himself for the truth."
"I shouldn't think they would," retorted Oliver. "Why don't you experiment on yourself?" ”

“ If it had been a man, Denton would have seen that there was no further chance for him to carry out his design; but it angered him to give in to a boy. He felt that it was disgraceful to a man, whose strength could outmatch Oliver twice over. Besides, he had felt Bundy's pocket-book, and he hated to leave the room without it. ”

“ You see how selfish I am? But I can't bear to think that that brutal husband of yours is enjoying your money, and thus reaping the benefit of his bad deeds."
"Sometimes I feel so," Mrs. Conrad admitted. "If Oliver were alive I should feel more like asserting my rights, but now all ambition has left me. If I should institute proceedings I should be compelled to return to New York, where everything would remind me of my sad loss. No, my dear friend, your advice is no doubt meant for the best, but I prefer to leave Mr. Kenyon in ignorance of my whereabouts and to keep away from his vicinity. ”

“ At the same time Roland rushed impetuously upon the boy who had offended him by his independence.
To say that Oliver kept calm under this aggravated attack would be incorrect. His eyes flashed with anger. He threw his books upon the lawn, and put himself in an instant on guard. A moment, and the two boys were engaged in a close struggle.
Roland was taller, and this gave him an advantage; but Oliver was the more sturdy and agile. He clasped Roland around the waist, lifted him off his feet, and laid him, after a brief resistance, on the lawn. ”

“ John stroked an incipient mustache and stole a look into the glass.
"Looks like it," he said.
"If she were only a rich widow you wouldn't mind cultivating her acquaintance?"
"I wish she were," said John thoughtfully.
"You haven't any widow in view, have you?"
"Yes, I have," said John, rather to Oliver's surprise.
"Who is it?"
"Her husband used to keep a lager-beer saloon on Bleecker Street, and now the widow carries it on. I've enquired about, and I hear she's worth ten thousand dollars. Would you like to see her?"
"Very much," answered Oliver, whose curiosity was excited. ”

“ Graham is very much like her."
Nicholas looked doubtful.
"You judge me by yourself, my boy," he answered. "Boys adapt themselves to ladies' society easy, but I'm an old crooked stick that don't lay straight with the rest of the pile."
"I don't care what you are, Mr. Bundy," said Oliver, with playful imperiousness; "my mother wants to see you, and come you must!"
Nicholas Bundy laughed.
"Well, Oliver," he said, "things seem turned round, and you have become my guardian. Well, if it must be, it must, but I'm afraid you'll be ashamed of me." ”

“ The doctor's house, though not as pretentious as Mr. Kenyon's, was unusually pleasant and attractive.
"Aunt Pauline," said Frank to his aunt, who was sitting on a rocking chair on the front piazza, "I have brought Oliver home to supper."
"I am very glad to see you, Oliver," said Miss Dudley. "I wish you would come oftener."
"Thank you, Miss Dudley; I am always glad to come here. It is so pleasant and social compared with――"
He paused, thinking it not in good taste to refer unfavorably to his own home.
"I understand," said Miss Dudley. "You must be lonely at home." ”

“ Conrad," she declared. "I never saw such a transformation."
"It is joy that has done it, my dear friend. I was as one without hope or object in life. Now I have both."
"Your husband has your fortune yet."
"I care not for that. Oliver is more to me than money."
"Thank you, mother," said Oliver; "but we must be practical, too. I have learned that money is a good thing to have. Mr. Kenyon has been led to wrong us, and make us unhappy, by his greed for money. We will punish him by depriving him of it."
"I quite agree with you, Oliver," said Mr. Graham, who was present. ”

“ They are more detestable than those who, a prey to strong passion, are hurried into the commission of acts which in their cooler moments they deeply regret.
To the first class belonged Mr. Kenyon, who, as we have already seen, had committed his wife to the horrible confinement of a mad-house that he might be free to spend her fortune. Hitherto he had not injured Oliver, though he had made his life uncomfortable; but the time was coming when our hero would be himself in peril. It was because he foresaw that Oliver might need to be removed that he began to treat him with unusual indulgence. ”

“ Dr. Fox shrugged his shoulders.
"Really," he said, "I couldn't pretend to explain your motives, my dear madam. Women are enigmas."
"Are my letters regularly mailed, Dr. Fox?" asked Mrs. Kenyon searchingly.
"How can you ask such a question? Do you not commit them to me?"
"So does Cleopatra," said Mrs. Kenyon, who had fallen into the habit of addressing her room-mate by the name she assumed. "Do you forward her letters to Mark Antony?"
"Does she doubt it?" asked the doctor, bowing to the mad queen.
"No, doctor," replied Cleopatra promptly. ”

“ Kenyon smiled pleasantly, showing a set of very white teeth as he did so.
"Really, that is amusing," he answered. "What on earth should make me afraid of Oliver?"
"I don't see what other reason you can have for backing down as you have."
"Listen, Roland. There is more than one way of arriving at a result, but there is always one way that is wiser than any other. Now it would not be wise for me to treat Oliver in such a way as to create unfavorable comment in the village."
"What do you care for what people in the village think?" asked Roland bluntly. "Haven't you got the money?" ”

“ He had not the art to conceal his dislike of our hero.
"You'd better come home," he said, turning to Oliver. "Father objects to our being out late."
"I know when to come home," said Oliver briefly.
"You'd better ask leave before you go out to supper again."
"If you have no more to say I will bid you good-evening," said Oliver quietly.
"You see what a pleasant brother I have," said Oliver after Roland's departure.
"It's a good thing to have somebody to look after you," said Carrie. "I wish Frank had such a guardian and guide." ”

“ Kenyon."
"What sort of a man is Mr. Kenyon?" asked Nicholas of Dr. Dudley.
"He is a very unprincipled schemer, in my opinion," was the reply. "He has managed to defraud Oliver of his mother's property and cast him penniless on the world."
"He is a scoundrel, no doubt; but I am not sorry for what he has done," replied Mr. Bundy. "But for him I should be a solitary man. Now I have a young friend to keep me company. Let the boy's inheritance go? I will provide for him!"
They dined together, and then Dr. Dudley and his family were obliged to return.
"Shall I give your love to Roland?" ”

“ Kenyon devoted his attention to the morning papers, and Oliver was sufficiently amused looking out of the window and examining his fellow-passengers.
Presently they reached the city. Leaving the cars, they got into a horse-car, for distances are great in New York.
Oliver looked out of the car windows with a lively sense of satisfaction. How much gayer and more agreeable it would be, he thought, to be in business in a great city like New York than to live in a quiet little country village where nothing was going on. ”

“ You must know that it is twenty years since I have set foot in New York, and it's grown beyond my knowledge. I want to go about and see for myself what changes have taken place in it. Will you go with me?"
"Yes, Mr. Bundy, I will go with you, and charge nothing for it."
"That won't do," said the stranger. "I shall insist on paying you ten dollars a week."
"But it seems like robbing you."
"Don't you trouble yourself about that. You think I am poor, perhaps?"
"You don't look as if you were rich," said Oliver, hesitating. ”

“ Can't we, Florette?"
"Let us yide in the horse-cars," said the little girl. "I like to yide in the cars better than in mamma's carriage."
"It shall be as you like, Florette," said Mrs. Conrad.
Florette clapped her little hands. Accustomed to ride in the carriage, it was a change and variety to her to ride in the more democratic conveyance, the people's carriage.
Mrs. Conrad, intent on amusing her little charge, decided to take her to Lincoln Park, in the northern division of the city. ”

“ Bond," said Oliver haughtily.
"How do you get along then?"
"Pretty well, thank you."
"I mean, how do you pay your expenses?" persisted Roland. "You have no income, you know."
"I ought to have," blazed out Oliver indignantly. "My mother left a hundred thousand dollars, which you and your father have coolly appropriated."
"My father has no money that is not his own," retorted Roland, "and that is more than――"
"Stop there, Roland, or I may forget myself," interrupted Oliver sternly. ”

“ What would the good people of Brentville say if they knew that your wife, supposed to be dead, is really confined in an insane asylum, while you, without any sanction of law, are living luxuriously on her wealth? I think, Mr. Kenyon, they would be very apt to lynch you."
"You have nothing to complain of, at least. You are well paid for the care of—of the person you mention." ”

“ You will please look upon me as the head of the household while he is away."
"I will, most learned doctor."
The evening meal passed pleasantly. Oliver could not help contrasting it with the dull and formal supper he was accustomed to take at home, and his thoughts found utterance.
"I wish I had as pleasant a home as you, Frank."
"You had better come and live with us, Oliver."
"I should like to."
"Suppose you propose it to Mr. Kenyon. I don't believe he prizes your society very much."
"Nor I. He wouldn't mind being rid of me, but Roland would probably object to my coming here." ”