American library books ยป Fiction ยป Herbert Carter's Legacy; Or, the Inventor's Son by Jr. Horatio Alger (top reads .TXT) ๐Ÿ“•

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โ€œYes; any way to make a living.โ€

โ€œDo you make much?โ€ inquired his old foe, curiously.

โ€œI haven't made enough to retire upon yet; but I can manage to pay my board.โ€

โ€œHow much do you pay for your board?โ€

Herbert hesitated about gratifying his curiosity, but finally did so.

โ€œFour dollars,โ€ repeated James, scornfully. โ€œIt can't be much of a boarding house.โ€

โ€œAn Italian count boards there,โ€ said Herbert, knowing James' respect for rank.

โ€œYou don't say so!โ€ returned James, rather impressed. โ€œDid he ever speak to you?โ€

โ€œHe spoke to me this morning.โ€

โ€œWhat did he say?โ€

โ€œ'Will you pass ze butter?'โ€

โ€œDo you save up any money?โ€ inquired James.

Herbert penetrated his motive in asking the question, and did not mean to give too definite information. But James was bent on learning all he could.

โ€œHow much do you make a day?โ€ he asked.

โ€œSometimes more, sometimes less, just as it happens.โ€

โ€œI can't tell anything from that.โ€

โ€œWhy do you want to know?โ€ asked Herbert, pointedly.

โ€œCuriosity, I suppose.โ€

โ€œSo I thought. If it was from interest in me, I would tell you; but I don't care to gratify your curiosity.โ€

โ€œYou don't expect me to feel any interest in a common newsboy, do you?โ€

โ€œNo; I don't. I know you too well for that.โ€

โ€œI don't see what object you have in refusing to answer my questions.โ€

โ€œIf you are thinking of going into the business, yourself, I'll tell you.โ€

โ€œI a newsboy? I sell papers in the street? You must be crazy!โ€ returned James, haughtily.

โ€œI suppose you feel above it,โ€ said Herbert, smiling.

โ€œTo be sure I do. Haven't I a right to?โ€

โ€œOh, you must settle that question for yourself. Papers, sir?โ€

The gentleman addressed purchased the last remaining paper, and Herbert was free till afternoon.

โ€œHow do you like the city?โ€ asked James.

โ€œVery much. I should like to have my mother here; then I would be contented.โ€

โ€œWe may come to live here,โ€ said James. โ€œOf course, we shall live in a brownstone front, uptown.โ€

โ€œI live in a brick house,โ€ said Herbert, smiling.

โ€œFashionable people live in brownstone fronts.โ€

โ€œI may be rich some time.โ€

โ€œThen you'll have to go into some other business. But there isn't much hope for you. You'll be a poor man.โ€

โ€œYou seem very confident of it.โ€

โ€œYou've got no chance, you know. But I must be going.โ€

โ€œWho do you think I met this morning, father?โ€ asked James, later in the day.

โ€œI don't know.โ€

โ€œThe Carter boy.โ€

โ€œWhere did you meet him?โ€

โ€œHe was selling papers in front of the Astor House.โ€

โ€œHe won't get rich very fast in that business. What did he have to say for himself?โ€

โ€œHe wouldn't tell me how much money he was making. He pays four dollars a week for board.โ€

โ€œHe probably finds it hard to pay that. It isn't likely he lays up anything. He would do better to stay in Wrayburn.โ€

โ€œThen you think he can't send any money to his mother?โ€

โ€œNo; he will find it hard to pay his own expenses.โ€

โ€œThen she won't be able to pay the interest on the mortgage?โ€

โ€œI don't see how she can.โ€

โ€œAnd you will seize the house?โ€

โ€œI fully intend to do so.โ€

โ€œGood! That'll bring down Carter's pride. He's as cheeky as ever.โ€

โ€œHe hasn't much to be proud of.โ€

โ€œThat don't seem to make any difference with him. He talks as if he were my equal.โ€

โ€œThat don't make him so.โ€

โ€œWhen are you going to move to the city, father?โ€

โ€œI don't know,โ€ said the squire, shortly.

โ€œI've got tired of Wrayburn.โ€

โ€œYou'll have to stay there till my business will allow me to move.โ€

The fact was, Squire Leech had just had an unsatisfactory interview with Mr. Andrew Temple. Under the advice of that gentleman he had invested a very considerable sum of money in some mining shares, in the assurance that he would be able in a very short time to sell at a large profit. But from the time he bought, they began to drop. He asked an explanation of Mr. Temple.

โ€œMy dear sir,โ€ said the financier, โ€œthere's no being sure of the market. So many trivial circumstances affect it, that the wisest of us cannot absolutely predict anything. We can only calculate probabilities.โ€

โ€œYou told me there was no doubt about the stock rising,โ€ grumbled the squire.

โ€œNor is there any, if you only have patience to wait Rome was not built in a day, you know.โ€

โ€œIt seems to me there is a good deal of uncertainty and risk in these stock operations,โ€ objected the squire, very sensibly.

โ€œNot under discreet guidance; if you only have pluck and patience, you are morally sure of a fortune in the end. Fortunes are made every day. Why, there's old Jenkins, a grocer on Sixth Avenueโ€”you've heard of his luck, haven't you?โ€

โ€œNo.โ€

โ€œMade fifty thousand dollars in six months from an original investment of ten thousand. At first, things went against him, but he was bound to see the thing through, and he did, and he's forty thousand better off for it.โ€

โ€œWhat did he invest in?โ€ asked the squire, eagerly.

Mr. Temple told him, but I regret to say that the whole thing was a fiction,

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