Driven from Home; Or, Carl Crawford's Experience, Jr. Horatio Alger [websites to read books for free .txt] 📗
- Author: Jr. Horatio Alger
Book online «Driven from Home; Or, Carl Crawford's Experience, Jr. Horatio Alger [websites to read books for free .txt] 📗». Author Jr. Horatio Alger
His unusual deliberation, and the fact that he was a stranger, excited strong interest, and all eyes followed the arrow with eager attentiveness.
There was a sudden shout of irrepressible excitement.
Carl’s arrow had struck the bull’s-eye and the prize was his.
“Christopher!” exclaimed Edward Downie, “you’ve beaten me, after all!”
“I’m almost sorry,” said Carl, apologetically, but the light in his eyes hardly bore out the statement.
“Never mind. Everybody would have called it a fluke if I had won,” said Edward. “I expect to get the prize for the long jump. I am good at that.”
“So am I, but I won’t compete; I will leave it to you.”
“No, no. I want to win fair.”
Carl accordingly entered his name. He made the second best jump, but Edward’s exceeded his by a couple of inches, and the prize was adjudged to him.
“I have my revenge,” he said, smiling. “I am glad I won, for it wouldn’t have been to the credit of the club to have an outsider carry off two prizes.”
“I am perfectly satisfied,” said Carl; “I ought to be, for I did not expect to carry off any.”
Carl decided not to compete for any other prize. He had invested twenty cents and got back a dollar, which left him a profit of eighty cents. This, with his original quarter, made him the possessor of a dollar and five cents.
“My luck seems to have turned,” he said to himself, and the thought gave him fresh courage.
It was five o’clock when the games were over, and Carl prepared to start again on his journey.
“Where are you going to take supper?” asked Downie.
“I—don’t—know.”
“Come home with me. If you are in no hurry, you may as well stay overnight, and go on in the morning.”
“Are you sure it won’t inconvenience you?”
“Not at all.”
“Then I’ll accept with thanks.”
CHAPTER XII. AN ODD ACQUAINTANCE.
After breakfast the next morning Carl started again on his way. His new friend, Edward Downie, accompanied him for a mile, having an errand at that distance.
“I wish you good luck, Carl,” he said, earnestly. “When you come this way again, be sure to stop in and see me.”
“I will certainly do so, but I hope I may find employment.”
“At any rate,” thought Carl, as he resumed his journey alone, “I am better off than I was yesterday morning. Then I had but twenty-five cents; now I have a dollar.”
This was satisfactory as far as it went, but Carl was sensible that he was making no progress in his plan of earning a living. He was simply living from hand to mouth, and but for good luck he would have had to go hungry, and perhaps have been obliged to sleep out doors. What he wanted was employment.
It was about ten o’clock when, looking along the road, his curiosity was excited by a man of very unusual figure a few rods in advance of him. He looked no taller than a boy of ten; but his frame was large, his shoulders broad, and his arms were of unusual length. He might properly be called a dwarf.
“I am glad I am not so small as that,” thought Carl. “I am richer than he in having a good figure. I should not like to excite attention wherever I go by being unusually large or unusually small.”
Some boys would have felt inclined to laugh at the queer figure, but Carl had too much good feeling. His curiosity certainly was aroused, and he thought he would like to get acquainted with the little man, whose garments of fine texture showed that, though short in stature, he was probably long in purse. He didn’t quite know how to pave the way for an acquaintance, but circumstances favored him.
The little man drew out a handkerchief from the side pocket of his overcoat. With it fluttered out a bank bill, which fell to the ground apparently unobserved by the owner.
Carl hurried on, and, picking up the bill, said to the small stranger as he touched his arm: “Here is some money you just dropped, sir.”
The little man turned round and smiled pleasantly.
“Thank you. Are you sure it is mine?”
“Yes, sir; it came out with your handkerchief.”
“Let me see. So it is mine. I was very careless to put it loose in my pocket.”
“You were rather careless, sir.”
“Of what denomination is it?’
“It is a two-dollar note.”
“If you had been a poor boy,” said the little man, eying Carl keenly, “you might have been tempted to keep it. I might not have known.”
Carl smiled.
“What makes you think I am not a poor boy?” he said.
“You are well dressed.”
“That is true; but all the money I have is a dollar and five cents.”
“You know where to get more? You have a good home?”
“I had a home, but now I am thrown on my own exertions,” said Carl, soberly.
“Dear me! That is bad! If I were better acquainted, I might ask more particularly how this happens. Are you an orphan?”
“No, sir; my father is living.”
“And your mother is dead?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Is your father a poor man?”
“No, sir; he is moderately rich.”
“Yet you have to fight your own way?”
“Yes, sir. I have a stepmother.”
“I see. Are you sure you are not unreasonably prejudiced against your stepmother? All stepmothers are not bad or unkind.”
“I know that, sir.”
“Yours is, I presume?”
“You can judge for yourself.”
Carl recited some incidents in his
Comments (0)