"That don"t make it so."
"He ought to know," put in Briggs.
"Yes; he ought to know!" chimed in Hooker.
"No doubt he does, but he can"t make me believe he"s any relation of mine."
"Just go and argy the point with him," said Hooker, coaxingly.
"It wouldn"t do no good."
"Maybe it would. Just go back with us, that"s a good boy."
"What makes you so anxious about it?" asked Dodger, suspiciously.
"Well," said Hooker, coughing, "we"re Tim"s friends, don"t you know."
"What"s he goin" to give you if I go back with you?" asked the boy, shrewdly.
"A gla.s.s of whiskey!" replied Hooker and Briggs in unison.
"Is that all?"
"Maybe he"d make it two."
"I won"t go back with you," said Dodger, after a moment"s thought; "but I don"t want you to lose anything by me. Here"s a dime apiece, and you can go and get a drink somewhere else."
"You"re a trump, Dodger," said Hooker, eagerly holding out his hand.
"I always liked you, Dodger," said Briggs, with a similar motion.
"Now, don"t let Tim know you"ve seen me," said the newsboy, warningly.
"We won"t."
And the interesting pair ambled off in the direction of the Bowery.
"So Tim sent them fellers after me?" soliloqized Dodger. "I guess I"ll have to change my office, or maybe Tim himself will be droppin" down on me some mornin". It"ll be harder to get rid of him than of them chumps."
So it happened that he used to take down his morning papers to the piers on the North River, and take his chance of selling them to pa.s.sengers from Boston and others ports arriving by the Fall River boats, and others from different points.
The advantage of this was that he often got a chance to serve as guide to strangers visiting the city for the first time, or as porter, to carry their valise or other luggage.
Being a bright, wideawake boy, with a pleasant face and manner, he found his services considerably in demand; and on counting up his money at the end of the week, he found, much to his encouragement, that he had received on an average about a dollar and twenty-five cents per day.
"That"s better than sellin" papers alone," thought he. "Besides, Tim isn"t likely to come across me here. I wonder I didn"t think of settin" up for myself before!"
In the evening he spent an hour, and sometimes more, pursuing his studies, under the direction of Florence. At first his attention was given chiefly to improving his reading and spelling, for Dodger was far from fluent in the first, while his style of spelling many words was strikingly original.
"Ain"t I stupid, Florence?" he asked one day, after spelling a word of three syllables with such ingenious incorrectness as to convulse his young teacher with merriment.
"Not at all, Dodger. You are making excellent progress; but sometimes you are so droll that I can"t help laughing."
"I don"t mind that if you think I am really gettin" on."
"Undoubtedly you are!"
"I make a great many mistakes," said Dodger, dubiously.
"Yes, you do; but you must remember that you have taken lessons only a short time. Don"t you think you can read a good deal more easily than you did?"
"Yes; I don"t trip up half so often as I did. I"m afraid you"ll get tired of teachin" me."
"No fear of that, Dodger. As long as I see that you are improving, I shall feel encouraged to go on."
"I wish I knew as much as your other scholar."
"You will in time if you go on. You mustn"t get discouraged."
"I won"t!" said Dodger, stoutly. "If a little gal like her can learn, I"d ought to be ashamed if I don"t--a big boy of eighteen."
"It isn"t the size of the boy that counts, Dodger."
"I know that, but I ain"t goin" to give in, and let a little gal get ahead of me!"
"Keep to that determination, Dodger, and you will succeed in time, never fear."
On the whole, Florence enjoyed both her pupils. She had the faculty of teaching, and she became very much interested in both.
As for Dodger, she thought, rough diamond as he was, that she saw in him the making of a manly man, and she felt that it was a privilege to a.s.sist in the development of his intellectual nature.
Again, he had picked up a good deal of slang from the nature of his a.s.sociates, and she set to work to improve his language, and teach him refinement.
It was necessarily a slow process, but she began to find after a time that a gradual change was coming over him.
"I want you to grow up a gentleman, Dodger," she said to him one day.
"I"m too rough for that, Florence. I"m only an ignorant street boy."
"You are not going to be an ignorant street boy all your life. I don"t see why you should not grow up a polished gentleman."
"I shall never be like that de Brabazon young man," said he.
"No, Dodger; I don"t think you will," said Florence, laughing. "I don"t want you to become effeminate nor a dude. I think I would like you less than I do now."
"Do you like me, Florence?" asked Dodger, brightening up.
"To be sure I do. I hope you don"t doubt it."