The Young Outlaw; or, Adrift in the StreetsAlger, Horatio, Jr.
History
The Young Outlaw; or, Adrift in the Streets
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
Conduct of life -- Fiction; Homeless persons -- Fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- History -- 19th century -- Fiction; Orphans -- Fiction
So Sam went down into the street. The first passer-by was a boy of
twelve.
"Give me one of them papers," he said.
Rather to his surprise Sam did not immediately comply. He first asked
a question.
"Have you got a dollar?"
"A dollar! You don't want a dollar for that paper, do you?"
"No; but I aint goin to waste it on you unless you've got a dollar."
"What do I want of a dollar?" asked the boy, surprised.
"To pay for havin' your corn cured."
The boy burst into a laugh.
"I aint got no corns," he said.
"Then go along, and don't bother me. You're no good."
A young dandy advanced, dressed in the height of fashion, swinging a
light cane in his lavender-gloved hand. A rose was in his button-hole,
and he was just in the act of saluting a young lady, when Sam thrust a
circular into his hand.
"Go right upstairs," he said, "and get your corns cured. Only a
dollar."
The young lady burst into a ringing laugh, and the mortified dandy
reddened with mortification.
"Keep your dirty paper to yourself, boy," he said. "I am not troubled
with those--ah, excrescences."
"I never heard of them things," said Sam. "I said corns."
"Stand out of my way, boy, or I'll cane you," exclaimed the incensed
fop.
"Your cane wouldn't hurt," said Sam, regarding the slight stick with
disdain. "Never mind; you needn't go up. I don't believe you've got a
dollar."
This was rather impudent in Sam, I acknowledge; and the dandy would
have been glad to chastise him.
"Miss Winslow," he said, "I hope you won't mind the rudeness of
this--ah, ragamuffin."
"Oh, I don't," said the young lady, merrily; "he amuses me."
"So he does me; ha, ha! very good joke," said the dandy, laughing too,
but not very merrily. "I hope you are quite well to-day."
"Thank you, quite so. But don't let me detain you, if you have an
engagement upstairs."
"I assure you," protested the young man, hurriedly, "that I have no
intention of going up at all."
"Then I must say good-morning, at any rate, as I am out shopping;" and
the young lady passed on.
"I've a great mind to flog you," said the dandy, frowning at Sam. "I
would if you wasn't so dirty. I wouldn't like to soil my hands by
taking hold of you."
"That's lucky for you," said Sam, coolly.
The answer was a withering frown, but Sam was tough, and not easily
withered.
"Aint he stuck up, though?" thought he, as the young man left him. "He
don't seem to like me much."
"Have you got any corns, sir?" he asked, thrusting a paper into the
hands of a portly gentleman with a merry face.
The gentleman laughed.
"Really, my boy," he said, "that is a very singular question."
"Is it?" said Sam. "I don't know why."
"Why do you ask?"
"Because Dr. Graham upstairs will cure you before you know it. It's
only a dollar."
"You are sure you are not Dr. Graham, yourself?" said the stout man,
regarding Sam with an amused expression.
"If I was, I'd wear better clothes," said Sam. "He makes lots of
money, the doctor does."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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