"How could I? Who'd teach a newsie like me t' read?" "I would, Jimmy, if you wanted me to." "No kiddin'?" "No 'kidding,' as you call it. I would like to very much." "Does ye t'ink I kin learn?" "I don't see why not. You are bright and quick, and you have a good memory, for you know where almost every street in New York is located." "Oh, dat's easy; but dem letters--every one looks so much alike dat I never kin tell 'em apart." "Oh, they are all different, as I can soon show you. Will you try?" "Sure I will. Crimps! But t'ink of me learnin' t' read!" "And why don't you include writing while you're about it?" asked Dick with a smile. "Writin'? Say, if I lived t' be a hundred years old I might learn t' scribble me own name, but dat's all." "Oh, no. I am sure you could learn to read and write. If you like I will teach you both." "Start in den!" exclaimed Jimmy with the air of a martyr. "De sooner de quicker. Say, tell ye what I'll do," he added as he put back in the box the cigarette he had not lighted. "If youse kin teach me t' read an' write I'll--I'll stop smokin'." "Really?" asked Dick, much delighted. "Sure. I guess I kin, but I'd like a cigarette awful jest now. Maybe if I smoke one now I kin quit easier." "If you are going to stop, you might as well stop at once," said Dick firmly, for he wanted to reform his partner if he could. "All right," agreed Jimmy with a sigh, and he put the box of cigarettes back in his pocket. "What are you going to do with them?" asked Dick. "I'll give 'em t' Dutchy. He smokes." "Throw them away. It isn't good for Sam to smoke, and you shouldn't give him the chance." This proposition was almost too much for Jimmy, used as he was to the life of the streets, but he had started on a new line of conduct and, at least for a time, he was going to follow it. He hesitated a moment, and then, with something like a sigh of regret, he went to the window of the room and tossed the box out into the air court. The cigarettes fell to the pavement below, where the rain soon spoiled them. "Now for the first lesson," said Dick. "We'll begin on the letters," and finding in an old newspaper an advertisement where the print was large, he began to teach Jimmy the rudiments of reading. [Illustration: "We'll begin on the letters," said Dick. _Page_ 92] The newsboy was eager to learn, and as Dick was an enthusiastic teacher, the lesson went on surprisingly well. It was nearly midnight before they stopped, so quickly did the time pass. "How do you like it?" asked Dick as they got ready for bed. "It's--it's kinder queer," replied Jimmy. "I can't seem to remember whether de cross piece of de letter T is on de top or on de bottom, an' I've clean forgot which is knocked flat on de side--de D or de O." "Oh, you'll soon remember all that. Don't be discouraged. It will come in time," said Dick encouragingly; and then the two newsboy partners said good-night and crawled between the blankets.