Dodger

“ The mate summoned the steward, and Dodger, still unconscious, was brought on board and quietly transferred to the bunk that had been prepared for him.
It was a critical moment for poor Dodger, but he was quite unconscious of it.
“What is the boy’s name?” asked the mate.
“Arthur Grant. The captain has it on his list. Is he on board?”
“Yes; but he is asleep.” ”

“ I shall not give him up to any one else.”
“So far as Florence is concerned—she is the cousin—she has no wish to deprive you of him. But is it possible that you are attached to a man who has treated you so meanly?” asked Dodger, in surprise.
“There was a time when he treated me well, when he appeared to love me,” was the murmured reply. “I cannot forget that he is the father of my child.”
Dodger did not understand the nature of women or the mysteries of the female heart, and he evidently thought this poor woman very foolish to cling with such pertinacity to a man like Curtis Waring. ”

“ I never heard of him until I entered his house,” and Dodger flushed as he thought that his entrance into the mansion on Madison Avenue had been as a burglar.
“It seems to me that he knows more about you than you do about him. It also seems to me that he is anxious to get you out of New York, the farther the better.”
“But what harm could I do him in New York?” asked Dodger, puzzled.
“That is the question which I cannot answer. You say he was instrumental in getting his Cousin Florence out of the house?”
“Yes; he wanted to marry her.” ”

“ There’s nothin’ dull about my business, unless it rains, and you get used to havin’ people look at you.”
“It isn’t all that are worth looking at like you, Mrs. O’Keefe,” said Dodger, slyly.
“Oh, go away wid your fun, Dodger,” said the apple-woman, good-naturedly. “I ain’t much to look at, I know.”
“I think there’s a good deal of you to look at, Mrs. O’Keefe. You must weigh near three hundred.”
“I’ve a good mind to box your ears, Dodger. I only weigh a hundred and ninety-five. But I can’t be bothered wid your jokes. Can you sew, Miss Florence?” ”

“ It will be remembered that Dodger, feeling that the name by which he had hitherto been known was hardly likely to recommend him, adopted the one given him by Curtis Waring.
“I think I shall like it ever so much,” answered Dodger. “Everybody seems to be wideawake.”
“Do you think you will like it better than New York?”
“I think a poor boy will have more of a chance of making a living here. In New York I was too well known. If I got a place anywhere some one would recognize me as Tim Bolton’s boy—accustomed to tend bar—or some gentleman would remember that he had bought papers of me. ”

“ Leighton to congratulate herself upon having secured a governess who had produced so favorable an impression on her little girl.
“Was you kept after school, Florence?” asked Dodger, as she entered her humble home. “I am afraid you’ll find your dinner cold.”
“Never mind, Dodger. I am to take dinner—or lunch, rather—at the house where I am teaching; so hereafter Mrs. O’Keefe need not wait for me.”
“And how do you like your place?”
“It is everything that is pleasant. You wished me good luck, Dodger, and your wish has been granted.” ”

“ In a city like New York, where many of the streets are tolerably well filled even at midnight, people get in the way of sitting up much later than in the country, and Dodger was no exception to this rule.
Yet here he was ready to drop off to sleep before eight o’clock. To him it was a mystery, for he did not know that the cup of tea which he had drunk at supper had been drugged by direction of Curtis Waring, with an ulterior purpose, which will soon appear.
“I may as well lie down, as there is nothing else to do,” thought Dodger. “There isn’t much fun sitting in the dark. ”

“ Dodger was hungry, for it was past his usual supper time, and he saw no reason why he should not accept the invitation.
Accordingly, he drew his chair up to the table and began to eat. Curtis seated himself on the other chair.
“I have a few questions to ask you, and that is why I arranged this interview. We are quite by ourselves,” he added, significantly.
“Very well, sir; go ahead.”
“Where is my Cousin Florence? I am right, I take it, in assuming that you know where she is.”
“Yes, sir; I know,” answered Dodger, slowly. ”

“ A Seasick Passenger.
The good ship Columbia had got fifty miles under way before Dodger opened his eyes.
He looked about him languidly at first, but this feeling was succeeded by the wildest amazement, as his eyes took in his unusual surroundings.
He had gone to sleep on a bed—he found himself on awakening in a ship’s bunk.
He half arose in his birth, but the motion of the vessel and a slight feeling of dizziness compelled him to resume a recumbent position.
“I must be dreaming,” thought Dodger. “It’s very queer. I am dreaming I am at sea. I suppose that explains it.” ”

“ This last consideration might not weigh so much with Florence, but Dodger was more practical, and he wished to restore her to the social position which she had lost through the knavery of her cousin.
But in San Francisco—at a distance of over three thousand miles—Dodger felt at a loss how to act.
Even if Mr. Linden was informed that his nephew had a wife living in San Francisco, the statement would no doubt be denied by Curtis, who would brand the woman as an impudent adventuress.
“The absent are always in the wrong,” says a French proverb. ”

“ I wonder if people ever get seasick in dreams?”
There was another pitch, and Dodger instinctively clung to the edge of his berth, to save himself from being thrown out.
“Let me see,” he said, trying to collect his scattered recollection. “I went to sleep in a house uptown—a house to which Curtis Waring lured me, and then made me a prisoner. The house was somewhere near One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street. Now it seems as if I was on board a ship. How could I get here? I wish somebody would come in that I could ask.” ”

“ There is my card, and if you ever come to Chicago, call upon me.”
“I will, sir.”
When Dodger left the Palace Hotel he felt that he was a favorite of fortune.
It is not always that the money we need is so quickly supplied.
He resolved to return to New York as soon as he could manage it, and take with him the wife and child of Curtis Waring.
This would cost him about five hundred dollars, and he would have the same amount left.
Mr. Tucker was reluctant to part with Dodger.
“You are the best assistant I ever had,” he said. “I will pay you twenty dollars a week, if that will induce you to stay.” ”

“ There is certainly no accounting for tastes. Miss Florence——”
“That’s her name, is it?”
“Yes; didn’t she tell you?”
“No; but it’s a nice name.”
“She declines my hand, and accepts your protection. It will certainly be a proud distinction to become Mrs. Dodger.”
“Don’t laugh at her!” said Dodger, suspiciously.
“I don’t propose to. But I think we may as well return to the library.”
“Well,” said Mr. Linden, as his nephew returned with Dodger.
“I have examined the boy, and found nothing on his person,” said Curtis; “I confess I am puzzled. ”

“ He has cleaned me out. But I can go and earn some more, when I like; can't I, Fagin?'
'To be sure you can, and the sooner you go the better, Tom; so make up your loss at once, and don't lose any more time. Dodger! Charley! It's time you were on the lay. Come! It's near ten, and nothing done yet.'
In obedience to this hint, the boys, nodding to Nancy, took up their hats, and left the room; the Dodger and his vivacious friend indulging, as they went, in many witticisms at the expense of Mr. Chitling ”

“ Well, at the age of twenty-one he could neither read nor write.”
“At twenty-one?” repeated Dodger. “Why, I’m only eighteen, and I do know something of readin’ and writin’.”
“To be sure! Well, Andy Johnson was taught to read and write by his wife. He kept on improving himself till, in course of time, he became a United States Senator, Vice-President, and afterward, President. Now, I don’t expect you to equal him, but I see no reason why you should not become a well-educated man if you are content to work, and keep on working.”
“I will keep on, Florence,” said Dodger, earnestly. ”

“ 'He's a rum dog. Don't he look fierce at any strange cove that laughs or sings when he's in company!' pursued the Dodger. 'Won't he growl at all, when he hears a fiddle playing! And don't he hate other dogs as ain't of his breed! Oh, no!'
'He's an out-and-out Christian,' said Charley. ”

“ Dodger found that he could live for eight dollars a week, and he began to lay by seven dollars a week with the view of securing funds sufficient to take him back to New York.
He was in no hurry to leave San Francisco, but he felt that Florence might need a friend. But he found that he was making progress slowly. ”

“ I shall make something of you.”
“I learn faster with you than with Florence,” said Dodger.
“Probably she would succeed better with girls, but I hold that a male teacher is better for boys. How long are you willing to study every day?”
“As long as you think best.”
“Then we will say from two to three hours. I think you have talent for arithmetic. I don’t expect to make you fit for a bookkeeper, but I hope to make you equal to most office boys by the time we reach San Francisco. What do you intend to do in California?” ”

“ And the two left the saloon and took a westerly route toward the North River piers.
Three hours later they returned.
“Have you heard anything?” asked Bolton. “Did you see Dodger?”
“No; we didn’t see him.”
“But you heard something?”
“Yes; we found a boy, a friend of his, that said the last he saw of Dodger was last evenin’.”
“Where did he see him?”
“Near the pier of the Albany boats.”
“What was he doin’?”
“Carryin’ a valise for a man.”
“What kind of a man? How did he look?” ”

“ If he can keep Florence and her uncle apart for a few months, Mr. Linden will die, and he will inherit the whole estate. What is this will he speaks of in the letter you showed me?”
“I don’t know, sir.”
“Whatever the provisions are, it is evident that he thinks it important to get it into his possession. If favorable to him, he will keep it carefully. If unfavorable, I think a man like him would not hesitate to suppress it.”
“No doubt you are right, sir. I don’t know much about wills,” said Dodger.
“No; I suppose not. You never made any, I suppose,” remarked the reporter, with a smile. ”

“ but, as he had a rather flightly and dissolute mode of conversing, and furthermore avowed that among his intimate friends he was better known by the sobriquet of 'The Artful Dodger,' Oliver concluded that, being of a dissipated and careless turn, the moral precepts of his benefactor had hitherto been thrown away upon him. ”

“ That when the Dodger, and his accomplished friend Master Bates, joined in the hue-and-cry which was raised at Oliver's heels, in consequence of their executing an illegal conveyance of Mr. Brownlow's personal property, as has been already described, they were actuated by a very laudable and becoming regard for themselves; ”

“ You are a rich young lady, and I’m only a poor boy, livin’ in a Bowery dive.”
“What’s that?”
“Never mind, miss, such as you wouldn’t understand. Why, all my life I’ve lived with thieves, and drunkards, and bunco men, and——”
“But I’m sure you don’t like it. You are fit for something better.”
“Do you really think so?” asked Dodger, doubtfullly.
“Yes; you have a good face. You were meant to be good and honest, I am sure.”
“Would you trust me?” asked the boy, earnestly, fixing his large, dark eyes eloquently on the face of Florence. ”

“ 'Well,' said the Jew, glancing slyly at Oliver, and addressing himself to the Dodger, 'I hope you've been at work this morning, my dears?'
'Hard,' replied the Dodger.
'As nails,' added Charley Bates. ”

“ for directly afterwards, the Dodger, and Charley, and the two young ladies, went away together, having been kindly furnished by the amiable old Jew with money to spend. ”

“ Blue nodded smilingly, but returned at once to his book, and Doodles, with a wee breath of disappointment, gave up the one-sided talk. He craved a stronger assurance from his brother that a stove was a proper subject for prayer; but he could wait until the story was finished, and meanwhile he would venture to pray.
It happened that Doodles was alone when Captain Bligh fulfilled his promise, and he had much to tell his mother and Blue of what the genial Captain had said. But one thing he kept to himself. He was anxious to have the gift from Heaven come as a surprise to his mother. ”

“ Admiring Bluetown gazed approvingly upon his swallow-tailed coat, his tall plume, his shining battle blade, his plated scabbard, worsted sash, and low-heeled, cowhide boots. The fair, who are ever ready to award their smiles to chivalry, were unanimous in their approval, and Deacon Dogget's daughter was heard to murmur, "O, what a pooty soger 'lias makes!" "Upon this hint he spake" a few days afterwards, and in due time they were married. But enough of that—our essay treats of war, not love.
In his "first field," Captain Muggs displayed his extraordinary knowledge of tactics. ”

“ The pen, the ink, the ledger, the "Yes, sir"—and once again he was Jim Lynch, head bookkeeper.
Jim knew that to Dodge he was a bit of office furniture, as little capable of thinking as the dictating-machines. As for Jim's idea of Dodge—Dodge, the man of ice, Dodge, the man of success. Dodge, at the sound of whose voice the force kotowed—Dodge was Jim's ideal.
He was tall, handsome, in the prime of life, prosperous, mighty. He had but to wish for a thing, and lo, it came to pass. Two hundred human beings moved at his beck and call, and the welfare of many hung upon his whim. ”