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Alger, Horatio, 1832-1899

"Paul the Peddler, or the Fortunes of a Young Street Merchant"

"He's quite welcome to the use of the room till to-morrow
morning. It's paid for in advance, and I don't think I shall find it
convenient to stop there."
He took the ring from his vest pocket and glanced at it furtively.
"It's a beauty," he murmured, complacently. "I never saw a handsomer
ring of the size. What was it the boy said he was offered for it? Two
hundred and fifty dollars! That'll give me a lift, and it doesn't come
any too soon. My money is pretty low."
He walked across the City Hall Park, and at Barclay street entered a
University place car.
"Evenin' paper, mister?" said a ragged newsboy, whose garments were
constructed on the most approved system of ventilation.
"What have you got?"
"Evenin' Post, Mail, Express!"
"Give me an Express. Here's ten cents."
"I haven't got but three cents change, mister."
"Never mind the change," said Mr. Montgomery, in a fit of temporary
generosity, occasioned by his good luck.
"Thank you, sir," said the newsboy, regarding Mr. Montgomery as a
philanthropist worthy of his veneration.
Felix Montgomery leaned back in his seat, and, with a benevolent smile,
ran his eyes over the columns of the Express. Among the paragraphs
which attracted his attention was one relating to a comrade, of similar
profession, who had just been arrested in Albany while in the act of
relieving a gentleman of his pocketbook.


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