Jr. Horatio Alger

“ You only have to hand in two dollars a week to your uncle.”
“Look here, Philip Carton, I hope you don’t expect to live off me. I have all I can do to take care of myself.”
Carton looked at Jasper in anger and mortification.
“I begin to understand how good a friend you are,” he said.
“I am not fool enough to pinch myself to keep you,” said Jasper bluntly. “You are a man of twenty five and I am only a boy. You ought to be able to take care of yourself.” ”

“ Jasper looked, and his eyes lighted up with malicious satisfaction.
“Oho!” he said. “Well, this is rich!”
“Give me a paper, boy,” he said, pretending not to recognize Rodney at first. “Why, it’s Ropes.”
“Yes,” answered Rodney, his cheek flushing. “You see what I am reduced to. What paper will you buy?”
“The Mail and Express.”
“Here it is.”
“Can’t you get another place?” asked Jasper curiously.
“I might if I could get a recommendation, but probably Mr. Goodnow wouldn’t give me one.” ”

“ THE BOY CAPITALIST.
“How are you, Uncle Cyrus?” said Jefferson Pettigrew heartily, as he clasped his uncle’s toil worn hand. “And Aunt Nancy, too! It pays me for coming all the way from Montana just to see you.”
“I’m glad to see you, Jefferson,” said his uncle. “It seems a long time since you went away. I hope you’ve prospered.”
“Well, uncle, I’ve brought myself back well and hearty, and I’ve got a few hundred dollars.”
“I’m glad to hear it, Jefferson. You’re better off than when you went away.” ”

“ He had always said Rodney before.
“Yes, sir.”
“That was a handsome fortune which your father left you.”
“Yes, sir. I never knew before how much it amounted to.”
“You only learn when you have lost it. Mr. Fielding has treated you shamefully.”
“Yes, sir, I suppose he has, but he says he will try to make it up to me in the future.”
“Pish! that is all humbug. Even if he is favored by fortune you will never get back a cent.” ”

“ I raised money enough to get home.”
“I hear you brought home a few hundred dollars.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Oh, well,” said the squire patronizingly, “that’s good beginning.”
“It must seem very little to a rich man like you, squire.”
“Oh, no!” said the squire patronizingly. “You are a young man. I shouldn’t wonder if by the time you get as old as I am you might be worth five thousand dollars.”
“I hope so,” answered Mr. Pettigrew demurely.
“By the way, you have brought a young man with you, I am told.”
“Yes.”
“I should like to make his acquaintance. He is rich, is he not?” ”

“ I have been out of luck lately.”
“I am sorry, but I can’t help it as I see.”
“How much money do you think I have in my pocket?”
“I don’t know, I am sure. I am not good at guessing conundrums.”
“Just ten cents.”
“That isn’t much,” said Jasper, indifferently.
“Let me have a dollar, thats a good fellow!”
“You seem to think I am made of money,” said Jasper sharply. “I haven’t got much more myself.”
“Then you might have. You get a good salary.”
“Only seven dollars.”
“You are able to keep most of it for yourself.” ”

“ You are a polished city gentleman and I am an ignorant miner from Montana.”
Louis Wheeler looked complacent when he was referred to as a polished city gentleman.
“You do yourself injustice, my dear Pettigrew,” he said in a patronizing manner. “You do indeed. You may not be polished, but you are certainly smart, as you have shown by accumulating a fortune.” ”

“ It is he who holds the mortgage on my uncle’s farm.”
“Do you know how large the mortgage is?”
“It is twelve hundred dollars. I shall borrow the money of you to pay it.”
“I understand,” said Rodney, smiling.
“I shall enjoy the way the old man will look down upon me very much as a millionaire looks down upon a town pauper.”
“How will he look upon me?”
“He will be very polite to you, for he will think you richer than himself.”
“On the whole, we are going to act a comedy, Mr. Pettigrew. What is the name of the man who lent you money to go to Montana?” ”

“ Three weeks later among the miners who were sitting on the narrow veranda of the “Miners’ Rest” in Oreville in Montana we recognize two familiar faces and figures—those of Jefferson Pettigrew and Rodney Ropes. Both were roughly clad, and if Jasper could have seen Rodney he would have turned up his nose in scorn, for Rodney had all the look of a common miner.
It was in Oreville that Mr. Pettigrew had a valuable mining property, on which he employed quite a number of men who preferred certain wages to a compensation depending on the fluctuations of fortune. ”

“ I think he will. He isn’t a bad man, but he has been unlucky.”
Mike, at the request of Mr. O’Connor, showed Rodney a locker in which he could store such articles of clothing as he had with him. After that he felt more at home, and as if he were staying at a hotel though an humble one.
At eight o’clock some of the boys had already gone to bed, but Mike and Rodney were among those who remained up. Rodney noticed with what kindness yet fairness the superintendent managed his unruly flock. Unruly they might have been with a different man, but he had no trouble in keeping them within bounds. ”

“ He is a man of ability, and as he is still in the prime of life, it may be that he will be able to redeem his promises and pay his debts in full, if sufficient time is given him.
“I can get no help or advice from Mr. Fielding,” thought Rodney. “I am thrown upon my own resources, and must fight the battle of life as well as I can alone.”
He got out in front of the Astor House. As he left the car he soiled his shoes with the mud so characteristic of New York streets.
“Shine your boots?” asked a young Arab, glancing with a business eye at Rodney’s spattered shoes. ”

“ There was little hope of changing the determination of his captors, but he resolved to try what he could do.
“Mr. Pettigrew is under no obligations to pay money out for me,” he said. “I am not related to him, and have not yet known him six months.”
“That makes no difference. You are his friend, and he likes you.”
“That is the very reason why I should not wish him to lose money on my account.”
“Oh, very well! It will be bad for you is he doesn’t come to your help.”
“Why? What do you propose to do to me?” asked Rodney boldly. ”

“ Do you like young children?”
“Very much. I always wished that I had a little brother.”
“Then I think you would suit my brother better as a tutor for Arthur than a young man. Being a boy yourself, you would be not only tutor but companion.”
“I should like such a position very much.”
“Then wait here a moment, and I will write you a letter of introduction.”
She went up stairs, but soon returned.
She put a small perfumed billet into Rodney’s hands. It was directed to John Sargent with an address on West Fifty Eighth Street. ”

“ Don’t you think it would be a good plan for us to start a business together in New York?”
“Would you really be willing to go into business with me?”
Jefferson Pettigrew asked this question with so much apparent sincerity that Wheeler was completely deceived.
“I’ve got him dead!” he soliloquized complacently.
He hooked his arm affectionately in the Montana miner’s and said, “My dear friend, I have never met a man with whom I would rather be associated in business than with you. How much capital could you contribute?” ”

“ After the two gentlemen left the Lodging House Rodney looked at the card and found that his new place of employment was situated on Reade Street not far from Broadway.
“It’s you that’s in luck, Rodney,” said his friend Mike. “Who’d think that a gentleman would come to the Lodging House to give you a place?”
“Yes, I am in luck, Mike, and now I’m going to make you a proposal.”
“What is it?”
“Why can’t we take a room together? It will be better than living here.” ”

“ Here, Caesar!”
“Yes, massa.”
“You know Oreville?”
“Yes, massa.”
“Go over there and take this letter with you. Ask for Jefferson Pettigrew, and mind you don’t tell him where we live. Only if he asks about me and my pal say we are desperate men, have each killed a round dozen of fellows that stood in our way and will stick at nothing.”
“All right, massa,” said Caesar with an appreciative grin. “How shall I go, massa?”
“You can take the kid’s horse. Ride to within a mile of Oreville, then tether the horse where he won’t easily be found, and walk over to the mines. Do you understand?” ”

“ What does it contain?”
“I fail to see how that is any of your business,” returned Wheeler, determined, if possible, to bluff off his visitors.
“I admire your cheek, sir. I really do. But I am too old a traveler to be taken in by such tricks. I propose to have that casket.”
“Well, sir, you are the most impudent thief and burglar I ever met. You break into a gentleman’s room, and undertake to carry off his private property. Unless you go out at once, I will have you arrested.” ”

“ On the way they met the gentleman of whom they had been speaking. He bowed stiffly, for he could not feel cordial to those whom had snatched from him the house for which he had been scheming so long.
“Squire Sheldon,” said Jefferson, “you were kind enough to invite Rodney and myself to supper some evening. I am sorry to say that we must decline, as we leave Burton tomorrow.”
“Use your own pleasure, Mr. Pettigrew,” said the squire coldly.
“It doesn’t seem to disappoint the squire very much,” remarked Jefferson, laughing, when the great man of the village had passed on. ”

“ When Caesar reached the place where he had tethered the horse, he was grievously disappointed at not finding him. One of the miners in roaming about had come upon the animal, and knowing him to be Jefferson Pettigrew’s property, untied him and rode him back to Oreville.
The dwarf threw up his hands in dismay.
“The horse is gone!” he said in his deep bass voice, “and now I must walk back, ten long miles, and get a flogging at the end for losing time. It’s hard luck,” he groaned.
The loss was fortunate for Fred and Otto who would otherwise have found it hard to keep up with the dwarf. ”

“ Every one present came forward, and tendered his contributions including Jefferson, who put down twenty five dollars.
Mr. Wheeler gathered up the notes and gold and sweeping them to his hat went forward and tendered them to John O’Donnell.
“Take this money, Mr. O’Donnell,” he said. “It is the free will offering of your friends. I am sure I may say for them, as for myself, that it gives us all pleasure to help a comrade in trouble.”
Louis Wheeler could have done nothing that would have so lifted him in the estimation of the miners. ”

“ Louis Wheeler left the hotel with the five dollars tucked away in his vest pocket.
He had no sooner disappeared than Rodney went forward and occupied his seat.
“Excuse me, sir,” he said to the miner, “but do you know much of the man who has just left you?”
“I only met him here. He seems a good natured fellow. What of him?”
“He said he was a man of independent means.”
“Isn’t he?”
“He is a thief and an adventurer.” ”

“ Rodney was received by Jefferson Pettigrew with open arms.
“Welcome home, boy!” he said. “I was very much worried about you.”
“I was rather uneasy about myself,” returned Rodney.
“Well, it’s all over, and all’s well that ends well. You are free and there has been no money paid out. Fred and Otto have done a good thing in ridding the world of the notorious Dixon brothers. They will be well paid, for I understand there is a standing reward of one thousand dollars for each of them dead or alive. ”

“ In his new position Rodney could easily hear the conversation which took place between the Western man and his old railroad acquaintance.
“I am quite a man of leisure,” said Wheeler, “and it will give me great pleasure to go about with you and show you our city.”
“You are very obliging.”
“Oh, don’t mention it. I shall really be glad to have my time occupied. You see I am a man of means—my father left me a fortune—and so I am not engaged in any business.”
“You are in luck. I was brought up on a farm in Vermont, and had to borrow money to take me to Montana four years ago.” ”

“ A MINISTER’S GOOD FORTUNE.
“I have another call to make, Rodney,” said Mr. Pettigrew, as they were on their way back to the hotel, “and I want you to go with me.”
“I shall be glad to accompany you anywhere, Mr. Pettigrew.”
“You remember I told you of the old minister whose church I attended as a boy. He has never received but four hundred dollars a year, yet he has managed to rear a family, but has been obliged to use the strictest economy.” ”