Jr. Horatio Alger

“ Harry hesitated, and Oscar observed it.
"Well, what's the matter now?" he said; "out with it."
"I'll tell you, Oscar," said Harry, coloring a little. "Your father is a rich man, and lives handsomely. I haven't any clothes good enough to wear on a visit to your house."
"Oh, hang your clothes!" said Oscar, impetuously. "It isn't your clothes we invite. It's yourself."
"Still, Oscar—"
"Come, I see you think I am like Fitz Fletcher, after all. Say you think me a snob, and done with it." ”

“ Fletcher," said Harry, and made his exit.
"You're a strange fellow, Oscar," said Fletcher, after Harry's departure.
"Very likely, but what particular strangeness do you refer to now?"
"No one but you would think of giving lessons to a printer's devil."
"I don't know about that."
"No one, I mean, that holds your position in society."
"I don't know that I hold any particular position in society."
"Your family live on Beacon Street, and move in the first circles. I am sure my mother would be disgusted if I should demean myself so far as to give lessons to any vulgar apprentice." ”

“ When you have a paper of your own, you can give your old friend, Professor Henderson, an occasional puff."
"I shall be glad to do that," said Harry, smiling, "but I shall have to wait some time first."
"How old are you now?"
"Sixteen."
"Then you may qualify yourself for an editor in five or six years. I advise you to try it at any rate. The editor in America is a man of influence."
"I do look forward to it," said Harry, seriously. "I should not be satisfied to remain a journeyman all my life, nor even the half of it." ”

“ Instead of accepting the half of your salary, I desire you, if possible, to save it, depositing in some reliable savings institution. If you do this every year till you are twenty-one, you will have a little capital to start you in business, and will be able to lead a more prosperous career than your father. Knowing you as well as I do, I do not feel it necessary to caution you against unnecessary expenditures. I will only remind you that extravagance is comparative, and that what would be only reasonable expenditure for one richer than yourself would be imprudent in you. ”

“ I shouldn't like always to be a journeyman. I manage to save up a hundred dollars a year. How much have we in the savings bank, Hannah?"
"Between four and five hundred dollars, with interest."
"It has taken me four years to save it up. In five more, if nothing happens, I should be worth a thousand dollars. Journeymen printers don't get rich very fast."
"I hope to have saved up something myself, in five years," said Harry.
"Then our plan may come to pass, after all. You shall be editor, and
I publisher."
"I should think you would prefer to be an editor," said his wife. ”

“ Harry looked over to Fletcher, who, with a sour expression, was sitting upright, and looking straight before him.
"He don't look happy, does he?" whispered Oscar, comically.
Harry came near laughing aloud, but luckily for Fletcher's peace of mind, succeeded in restraining himself.
"He won't call you up again in a hurry; see if he does," continued
Oscar.
"I am sure we have all been gratified by Mr. Walton's spirited declamation," said the President, rising. "We congratulate ourselves upon adding so fine a speaker to our society, and hope often to have the pleasure of hearing him declaim." ”

“ President, I should like to ask the gentleman his reason," said Henry Fairbanks, Chairman of the Finance Committee. "Why should we tax the members to such an extent, when the sums reported are sufficient to defray the ordinary expenses of the Society, and to leave a small surplus besides?"
"Mr. President," returned Fletcher, "I will answer the gentleman. We don't want to throw open the Society to every one that can raise a dollar. We want to have an exclusive society."
"Mr. President," said Oscar Vincent, rising, "I should like to ask the gentleman for how many he is speaking. ”

“ Fletcher arched his brows in surprise, and said coldly, "Indeed, I was not aware Mr. Walton was in the city."
"He is visiting me," said Oscar.
Fletcher looked surprised. He knew the Vincents stood high socially, and it seemed extraordinary that they should receive a printer's devil as a guest.
"Have you given up the printing business?" he asked superciliously.
"No; I only have a little vacation from it."
"Ah, indeed! It's a very dirty business. I would as soon be a chimney-sweep."
"Each to his taste, Fitz," said Oscar. "If you have a taste for chimneys, I hope your father won't interfere." ”

“ Oscar struck in.
The editor hesitated.
"It is not our custom to pay novices just at first," he said. "If
Mr. Walton keeps on writing, he would soon command compensation."
Harry would not have dared to press the matter, but Oscar was not so diffident. Indeed, it is easier to be bold in a friend's cause than one's own.
"Don't you think it is worth being paid for, if it is worth printing?" he persisted.
"Upon that principle, we should feel obliged to pay for poetry," said the editor.
"Oh," said Oscar, "poets don't need money. They live on flowers and dew-drops." ”

“ At table Harry sat between Maud and Oscar. If at first he felt a little bashful, the feeling soon wore away. The dinner hour passed very pleasantly. Mr. Vincent chatted very agreeably about men and things. There is no one better qualified to shine in this kind of conversation than the editor of a city daily, who is compelled to be exceptionally well informed. Harry listened with such interest that he almost forgot to eat, till Oscar charged him with want of appetite. ”

“ I should like to buy as many every year; but books are expensive, and the outlay would make too great an inroad upon my small surplus."
"I always thought I should like a library," said Harry, "but my father is very poor, and has fewer books than you. As for me, I have but one book besides the school-books I studied, and that I gained as a school prize—The Life of Franklin."
"If one has few books he is apt to prize them more," said Ferguson, "and is apt to profit by them more." ”

“ I wish I was one of your lucky ones."
"You might have had a few hundred dollars, at any rate," said Ferguson, "if you hadn't chosen to spend all your money when you were earning good wages."
"A man must have a little enjoyment. We can't drudge all the time."
"It's better to do that than to be where you are now."
But Clapp was not to be convinced that he was himself to blame for his present disagreeable position. He laid the blame on fortune, like thousands of others. He could not see that Harry's good luck was the legitimate consequence of industry and frugality. ”

“ To send a boy out into the world to earn his own living is a hazardous experiment, and fathers are less sanguine than their sons. Their experience suggests difficulties and obstacles of which the inexperienced youth knows and possesses nothing. But in the present case Mr. Walton reflected that the little farming town in which he lived offered small inducements for a boy to remain there, unless he was content to be a farmer, and this required capital. His farm was too small for himself, and of course he could not give Harry a part when be came of age. ”

“ Some of my readers who are favored by fortune may regard this as a small sum. It is small in itself, but it was not small for a youth in Harry's position to have saved from his small earnings. But of greater value than the sum itself was the habit of self-denial and saving which our hero had formed. He had started in the right way, and made a beginning which was likely to lead to prosperity in the end. It had not been altogether easy to save this sum. Harry's income had always been small, and he might, without incurring the charge of excessive extravagance, have spent the whole. ”

“ Ferguson laughed, and Harry wanted to, but feared he should offend the younger journeyman, who evidently had worked himself into a bad humor.
"I don't think you're in any danger," said Ferguson, who did not mind his fellow-workman's little ebullitions of temper.
Clapp scowled, but did not deign to reply, partly, perhaps, because he knew that there was nothing to say.
From the outset Ferguson took a fancy to the young apprentice.
"He's got good, solid ideas," said he to Mr. Anderson, when Harry was absent. "He isn't so thoughtless as most boys of his age. He looks ahead." ”

“ Clapp, sarcastically.
"I am afraid it wouldn't do much good to try," said Harry, who was too sensible to take offence. "It isn't so easily done."
"I suppose some day we shall be proud of having been in the same office with so great a man," pursued Clapp.
"Really, Clapp, you're rather hard on our young friend," said Ferguson. "He doesn't put on any airs of superiority, or pretend to anything uncommon."
"He's very kind—such an intellect as he's got, too!" said Clapp. ”

“ It won't bring you money, will it?"
"Yes," said Ferguson. "Education will make a man more competent to earn money, at any rate in many cases. I have a cousin, who used to go to school with me, but his father was able to send him to college. He is now a lawyer in Boston, making four or five times my income. But it isn't for the money alone that an education is worth having. There is a pleasure in being educated."
"So I think," said Harry.
"I don't see it," said Clapp. "I wouldn't be a bookworm for anybody. There's Walton learning French. What good is it ever going to do him?" ”

“ Walton," said Maud, "and keep firm hold."
"I will, if Oscar consents."
"I will see about it. But here is my father. Father, this is my friend, Harry Walton."
"I am glad to see you, Mr. Walton," said Mr. Vincent. "Then you belong to my profession?"
"I hope to, some time, sir; but I am only a printer as yet."
"You are yet to rise from the ranks. I know all about that. I was once a compositor."
Harry looked at the editor with great respect. He was stout, squarely built, with a massive head and a thoughtful expression. His appearance was up to Harry's anticipations. ”

“ Imitating the other's frankness, he also took off his hat and replied,—
"Let me introduce myself, in turn, as Harry Walton, junior apprentice in the office of the 'Centreville Gazette,' sometimes profanely called 'printer's devil.'"
"Good!" said Oscar, laughing. "How do you like the business?"
"I think I shall like it, but I have only just started in it. I went into the office for the first time to-day."
"I have an uncle who started as you are doing," said Oscar. "He is now chief editor of a daily paper in Boston."
"Is he?" said Harry, with interest. "Did he find it hard to rise?" ”

“ Money is the great tempter nowadays. Consider how many defalcations and breaches of trust we read of daily in confidential positions, and we are forced to conclude that honesty is a rarer virtue than we like to think it. I have every reason to believe that my assistant last winter purloined, at the least, a hundred dollars, but I was unable to prove it, and submitted to the loss. It may be the same next winter. Can't I induce you to change your resolution, and remain in my employ? I will advance your pay."
"Thank you, Professor Henderson," said Harry gratefully. ”

“ It's hard work and poor pay. I just wish I was in my brother's shoes. He is a bookkeeper in Boston, with a salary of twelve hundred a year, while I am plodding along on fifteen dollars week."
"You may do better some day," said Ferguson.
"Don't see any chance of it."
"If I were in your place, I would save up part of my salary, and by and by have an office, and perhaps a paper of my own."
"Why don't you do it, then?" sneered Clapp.
"Because I have a family to support from my earnings—you have only yourself."
"It doesn't help me any; I can't save anything out of fifteen dollars a week." ”

“ Fletcher approached Oscar Vincent, and said, "I can't see, Oscar, why you are trying to get that printer's devil into our Society."
"Because he's a good fellow, and smart enough to do us credit."
"If there were any bootblacks in Centreville I suppose you'd be proposing them?" said Fletcher with a sneer.
"I might, if they were as smart as my friend Walton."
"You are not very particular about your friends," said Fletcher in the same tone.
"I don't ask them to open their pocket-books, and show me how much money they have."
"I prefer to associate with gentlemen." ”

“ Here I am twenty-five years old, and all I'm worth is two dollars and a half, and I owe more than that to the tailor."
"You're as rich as I am," said Luke. "I only get fourteen dollars a week. That's less than you do."
"A dollar more or less don't amount to much," said Clapp. "I'll tell you what it is, Luke," he resumed after a pause, "I'm getting sick of Centreville."
"So am I," said Luke, "but it don't make much difference. If I had fifty dollars, I'd go off and try my luck somewhere else, but I'll have to wait till I'm gray-headed before I get as much as that." ”

“ This Walton is only a printer's devil."
"I don't know that that is any objection to him. It isn't morally wrong to be a printer's devil, is it?"
"What a queer fellow you are, Oscar. Of course I don't mean that. I daresay he's well enough in his place, though he seems to be very forward and presuming, but you know that he's not your equal." ”

“ I am a native of Boston."
"Of course you be," said the imperturbable pedler. "Cousin Jim—that's your father—went to Boston when he was a boy, and they do say he's worked his way up to be a mighty rich man. Your father is rich, aint he?"
"My father is wealthy, and always was," said Fitzgerald.
"No he wasn't, Cousin Fitz," said Abner. "When he was a boy, he used to work in grandfather's store up to Hampton; but he got sort of discontented and went to Boston. Did you ever hear him tell of his cousin Roxanna? That's my mother." ”

“ Clapp would have found any place beastly where a fair day's work was required for fair wages, and my young readers in St. Louis, therefore, need not heed his disparaging remarks.
"How was it with you, Luke?" asked Harry. "Do you like the West no better than Clapp?"
"You don't catch me out there again," said Luke. "It isn't what it's cracked up to be. We had the hardest work in getting money enough to get us back." ”

“ When the two boys arrived in Boston they took a carriage to Oscar's house. It was situated on Beacon Street, not far from the Common,—a handsome brick house with a swell front, such as they used to build in Boston. No one of the family was in, and Oscar and Harry went up at once to the room of the former, which they were to share together. It was luxuriously furnished, so Harry thought, but then our hero had been always accustomed to the plainness of a country home.
"Now, old fellow, make yourself at home," said Oscar. "You can get yourself up for dinner. ”

“ Peabody did not hear the merriment that followed, or he would have given up the editorial staff of the Centreville "Gazette" as maliciously disposed to underrate his favorite medicine.
"Who wouldn't be an editor?" said Harry.
"I notice," said Ferguson, "that pill-tenders and blacking manufacturers are most liberal to the editorial profession. I only wish jewellers and piano manufacturers were as free with their manufactures. I would like a good gold watch, and I shall soon want a piano for my daughter." ”