.

"Well, Tom, and how's your grandfather this mornin'?"

"He's weak, Mrs. Flanagan; but he'll be the better for some breakfast,
and so shall I. I'll go and buy half a dozen eggs, if you'll be kind
enough to cook them, and make some coffee for us. I'll pay you for your
trouble."

"Of course I will, Tom. And for the eggs you needn't go out, for I've
got the same in the closet; but I'm short of bread, and, if you'll buy
a loaf, I'll have the coffee and eggs ready in no time."

While Tom is on his way to the baker's shop, a few words of explanation
and description may be in place. First, for our hero. I have already
said he was fifteen. Let me add that he was stout and strongly built,
with an open, prepossessing face, and the air of one who is ready to
fight his own battles without calling for assistance. His position in
life is humble, for he is a street bootblack. He has served, by turns,
at other vocations; but he has found none of them pay so well as this.
He has energy and enterprise, and few of his comrades secure so many
customers as he. For years he has lived with the old man introduced as
Jacob, and is popularly regarded as his grandson; but Jacob has never
made claim to that relationship, nor has he ever volunteered any
information to the boy as to what originally brought them together.
Occasionally Tom has tried to obtain some information, but on such
occasions Jacob has been very reticent, and has appeared, for some
reason, unwilling to speak. So, by degrees, Tom has given up asking
questions, and has been much more concerned about the means of living
than about his pedigree.

Jacob has done little or nothing for their common support, though at
times, greatly to the annoyance of Tom, he has gone out on the street
and asked alms. Tom, being high-spirited and independent, has resented
this, and has always interfered, in a very decided manner, to prevent
Jacob's figuring as a beggar. Though only a bootblack, he has an honest
independence of feeling, in which any one is justified who works,
however humbly, for his support.

Old Jacob is, moreover, a miser, so far as he can be. Whatever money he
may have acquired by begging, he has kept. At all events, he has
offered nothing of it for the common expenses. But Tom has not troubled
himself about this. He suspects that Jacob may have a few dollars
secreted somewhere, but is perfectly willing he should keep them for
his own satisfaction. His earnings average over