THE NEWSBOY AND HIS STEPFATHER.
Rough and Ready passed the night at the Lodging House, as he had
previously determined. The bed which he obtained there was considerably
better than the one he had usually rested upon in the room in Leonard
Street. He slept soundly, and only awoke when the summons came to all
the boys to get up. As our hero lifted up his head, and saw the rows of
beds, with boys sitting up and rubbing their eyes, the thought of his
freedom from the sway of his stepfather recurred to his mind, and he
jumped up in very good spirits. He breakfasted at the Lodge, paying only
six cents for the meal, and then hastened to the offices of the morning
papers to secure a supply of merchandise.
He began to estimate his probable weekly expenses. He had agreed to pay
Miss Manning four dollars a week for Rose's board and his own supper.
His expenses at the Lodging House would be seventy-two cents a week. His
dinner would perhaps amount to a dollar more. This would be five dollars
and seventy-two cents, which he must earn at any rate. But, besides
this, both Rose and himself would need clothes. Probably these would
cost annually fifty dollars apiece, averaging, for the two, two dollars
per week. Thus his entire expenses footed up seven dollars and
seventy-two cents, or about one dollar and twenty-nine cents per working
day.
"That is considerable," thought the newsboy. "I wonder if I can do it."
Some boys might have been frightened at this estimate. But Rough and
Ready had good courage. He felt that his sister and he could not live
comfortably for less, and he resolved that if he could not make it all
by selling papers, he would get a chance to do errands, or manage in
some other way to eke out the necessary amount. But he resolved to make
his newspaper trade pay as much of it as possible. He went to work,
therefore, with a good deal of energy, and the pile of morning papers,
with which he started, melted away fast. At last he had but one left.
Looking out for a purchaser for that, he saw advancing towards him an
old woman, dressed in quaint, old-fashioned costume.
"Won't you let me look at that paper of yourn?" asked the old lady.
"Certainly, ma'am," said Rough and Ready; "it's made to be looked at."
"Wait a minute. I dunno as I've got my specs," said she, diving her hand
into a pocket of great depth, and bringing up first a snuff-box, and
next a red cotton handkerchief.
"There, I know'd I'd mislaid 'em," she said, in a tone of
disappointment. "Can you read, boy?"
"More or less," said Rough and Ready. "What is it you wanted?"
"Why, you see I live to Danbury when I'm at home, and I heerd tell that
Roxanna Jane Pinkham was married, and I want to know ef it's true. Maybe
you'll find it in the marriages."
"All right, ma'am," said Rough and Ready, glancing over the paper till
he came to the list of marriages.
"Is this it, ma'am?" asked the newsboy, reading, "In Danbury, Miss
Roxanna Jane Pinkham to Pompey Smith, a very respectable colored man
from New York."
"Massy sakes!" ejaculated the old lady. "Has Roxanna married a nigger?
Well, she must have been put to't for a husband. Thank you, boy. I'd buy
your paper, but I only wanted to know for certain if Roxanna was
married. That does beat me,—her marryin' a colored person!"
"That's a profitable customer," thought the newsboy. "I guess she won't
find that marriage in any of the other papers. This one has got it
exclusive."
Immediately upon her return, the old lady spread the news of Roxanna
Pinkham's strange marriage, and wrote comments upon it to her daughter
in Danbury. When the report was indignantly denied by the lady most
interested, and she threatened to sue the old lady for circulating a
slanderous report, the latter stoutly asserted that she heard it read
from a New York paper, and she had no doubt there was something in it,
or it wouldn't have got into print.
This trick was hardly justifiable in the newsboy; but he was often
troubled by people who wanted to look at his papers, but were not
willing to buy them, and he repaid himself by some imaginary news of a
startling description.
After disposing of his last paper, he procured a fresh supply, and was
engaged in selling these, when, on looking up, he saw advancing towards
him James Martin, his stepfather.
Before chronicling the incidents of the interview between them, we must
go back to the time of Martin's awaking in the room in Leonard Street.
He remembered, at once, the visit of the landlord's agent the day
previous, and felt that the time for action had arrived. He knew that
the scanty furniture in the room was liable to seizure for rent, and
this he resolved the landlord should not get hold of. Accordingly,
dressing hastily, he went round to Baxter Street, and accosted the
proprietor of a general second-hand establishment, with whom he had
previously had some dealings.
"I've got some furniture to sell," he said. "Do you want to buy?"
"I don't know," said the other. "Trade is very dull. I don't sell a
dollar's worth in a day."
"Come, you shall have them cheap," said Martin.
"What have you got?"
"Come and see."
"Where is it?"
"In Leonard Street, just round the corner."
The dealer, always ready for a bargain, was induced to climb up to the
attic room, and take a look at the cheap wooden bedstead, with its
scanty bedding, and the two chairs, which were about all the furniture
the room contained.
"It's not worth much," he said.
"Well, I suppose it's worth something," said Martin.
"What'll you take for it?"
"Three dollars."
"I'll give you one dollar."
"That's too bad. You ought to give me two dollars, at any rate."
At length, after considerable chaffering, the dealer agreed to give a
dollar and a quarter, which Martin pocketed with satisfaction.
Just as he had effected the sale, the landlord's agent appeared.
"Have you got your rent ready?" he asked of Martin.
"No, I haven't," said Martin.
"Then you must move out."
"I'm just moving."
"But I shall seize the furniture," said the agent. "I can't allow you to
move that."
"Take it, if you want to," said Martin, in a coarse laugh. "I've just
sold it to this man here."
"I don't believe it," said the agent, angrily.
"Oh, well, it's nothing to me. Settle it between you," said Martin,
carelessly, going downstairs, leaving the dealer and the agent to an
animated and angry dispute over the broken-down bedstead.
"That was neatly done," thought Martin, laughing to himself. "I don't
care which gets it. I suppose they'll have a fight about it. Now I must
have a good breakfast, and then for a talk with that young rebel. He
thinks he's cheated me cleverly, but I'm not through with him yet."
Martin strayed into a restaurant at the lower end of Chatham Street,
where he made a satisfactory breakfast, with as little regard to expense
as if his resources were ample. Indeed, he felt little trouble about the
future, being fully determined that in the future, as in the past, Rufus
should support him.
"Aint I entitled to his earnings, I'd like to know till he comes of
age?" thought Martin.
So he convinced himself readily that law and right were on his side, and
it was with no misgivings as to the result that he approached the
newsboy whom, from some distance away, he saw actively engaged in plying
his business.
"'Herald,' 'Tribune,' 'Times,' 'World'!" cried Rough and Ready, looking
about him for possible customers.
"So I've found you at last," said James Martin, grimly addressing the
newsboy.
"I haven't been lost that I know of," said Rough and Ready, coolly.
"Where were you last night?"
"At the Newsboys' Lodge."
"What made you leave home?"
"I didn't like staying there."
"You're a mighty independent young man. How old do you pretend to be?"
"Fifteen, as near as I can remember," said the newsboy.
"I didn't know but you were twenty-one, as you claim to be your own
master," sneered Martin.
"I don't see why I shouldn't be my own master," said Rough and Ready,
"as long as I have to support myself."
"Aint I your father?"
"No, you aint," said the newsboy, bitterly. "You married my mother, and
killed her with your ill-treatment. I don't want to have anything more
to do with you."
"Oh, you're mighty smart. What have you done with your sister?"
"She's safe," said the newsboy, shortly.
"What business had you to take her away from her home?" demanded Martin,
angrily.
"I've got the care of her."
"She's my child, and you must bring her back again."
"Your child!" said Rufus, contemptuously. "You did not give a cent
towards supporting her. What little you earned you spent for rum. I had
to pay all the expenses, and when I bought my sister some new clothes,
you were mean enough to carry them off and sell them. If it hadn't been
for that, I would have left her a little while longer. But that was more
than I could stand, and I've carried her where you won't find her."
"Tell me, instantly, where you have carried her," said James Martin,
stung by the newsboy's reproaches, and doggedly resolved to get the
little girl back, at all hazards.
"I don't mean to tell you," said Rough and Ready.
"Why not?"
"Because she is in a good place, where she will be taken care of, and I
don't mean that you shall get hold of her again."
"You'd better take care what you say," said Martin, his red nose growing
redder still, in his angry excitement.
"I'm not afraid of your threats," said the newsboy, quietly.
"I've a great mind to give you a flogging on the spot."
"I wouldn't advise you to try it, unless you want me to call a copp."
James Martin had no great love for the police, with whom he had before
now got into difficulty. Besides, he knew that Rufus, though not as
strong as himself, was strong enough to make a very troublesome
resistance to any violence, and that the disturbance would inevitably
attract the attention of the police. So he forbore to attack him, though
he found it hard to resist the impulse. But he shook his fist menacingly
at Rufus, and said, "Some day I'll get hold of your sister, you may be
sure of that, and when I do, I'll put her where you'll never set eyes on
her again. Just remember that!"
He went off muttering, leaving Rufus a little troubled. He knew that his
stepfather had an ugly spirit, and he feared that he would keep on the
watch for Rose, and some day might get hold of her. The very thought was
enough to make him tremble. He determined to warn Miss Manning of the
danger which threatened his little sister, and request her to be very
careful of her, keeping her continually under her eye.