Dick left the counting room, hardly knowing whether he stood on his head or his heels, so overjoyed was he at the sudden change in his fortunes. Ten dollars a week was to him a fortune, and three times as much as he had expected to obtain at first. Indeed he would have been glad, only the day before, to get a place at three dollars a week. He reflected that with the stock of clothes which he had now on hand, he could save up at least half of it, and even then live better than he had been accustomed to do; so that his little fund in the savings bank, instead of being diminished, would be steadily increasing. Then he was to be advanced if he deserved it. It was indeed a bright prospect for a boy who, only a year before, could neither read nor write, and depended for a night’s lodging upon the chance hospitality of an alleyway or old wagon. Dick’s great ambition to “grow up ’spectable” seemed likely to be accomplished after all.
“I wish Fosdick was as well off as I am,” he thought generously. But he determined to help his less fortunate friend, and assist him up the ladder as he advanced himself.
When Dick entered his room on Mott Street, he discovered that someone else had been there before him, and two articles of wearing apparel had disappeared.
“By gracious!” he exclaimed; “somebody’s stole my Washington coat and Napoleon pants. Maybe it’s an agent of Barnum’s, who expects to make a fortun’ by exhibitin’ the valooable wardrobe of a gentleman of fashion.”
Dick did not shed many tears over his loss, as, in his present circumstances, he never expected to have any further use for the well-worn garments. It may be stated that he afterwards saw them adorning the figure of Micky Maguire; but whether that estimable young man stole them himself, he never ascertained. As to the loss, Dick was rather pleased that it had occurred. It seemed to cut him off from the old vagabond life which he hoped never to resume. Henceforward he meant to press onward, and rise as high as possible.
Although it was yet only noon, Dick did not go out again with his brush. He felt that it was time to retire from business. He would leave his share of the public patronage to other boys less fortunate than himself. That evening Dick and Fosdick had a long conversation. Fosdick rejoiced heartily in his friend’s success, and on his side had the pleasant news to communicate that his pay had been advanced to six dollars a week.
“I think we can afford to leave Mott Street now,” he continued. “This house isn’t as neat as it might be, and I shall like to live in a nicer quarter of the city.”
“All right,” said Dick. “We’ll hunt up a new room tomorrow. I shall have plenty of time, having retired from business. I’ll try to get my reg’lar customers to take Johnny Nolan in my place. That boy hasn’t any enterprise. He needs some body to look out for him.”
“You might give him your box and brush, too, Dick.”
“No,” said Dick; “I’ll give him some new ones, but mine I want to keep, to remind me of the hard times I’ve had, when I was an ignorant bootblack, and never expected to be anything better.”
“When, in short, you were ‘Ragged Dick.’ You must drop that name, and think of yourself now as”—
“Richard Hunter, Esq.,” said our hero, smiling.
“A young gentleman on the way to fame and fortune,” added Fosdick.
Here ends the story of Ragged Dick. As Fosdick said, he is Ragged Dick no longer. He has taken a step upward, and is determined to mount still higher. There are fresh adventures in store for him, and for others who have been introduced in these pages. Those who have felt interested in his early life will find his history continued in a new volume, forming the second of the series, to be called—
Fame and Fortune;
Or,
The Progress of Richard Hunter
Endnotes
-
A fact. ↩
-
Mr. Stewart’s Tenth Street store was not open at the time Dick spoke. ↩
-
Since destroyed by fire, and rebuilt farther up Broadway, and again burned down in February. ↩
-
Now the office of the Merchants’ Union Express Company. ↩
-
Now not far from one hundred thousand. ↩
-
Now the college of the city of New York. ↩
Colophon
Ragged Dick
was published in 1868 by
Horatio Alger, Jr.
This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
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John Nabholz,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2002 by
Andrew Sly
for
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and on digital scans from the
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The cover page is adapted from
Central Park and the Plaza,
a painting completed in 1918 by
William A. Coffin.
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May you do good and not evil.
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May you share freely, never taking more than you give.
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