e 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
whethe