Boy; Tom the Bootblack;
Struggling Upward; Facing the World; The Cash Boy; Making His Way; Tony
the Tramp; Joe's Luck; Do and Dare: Only an Irish Boy; Sink or Swim;
A Cousin's Conspiracy; Andy Gordon; Bob Burton; Harry Vane; Hector's
Inheritance; Mark Manson's Triumph; Sam's Chance; The Telegraph Boy;
The Young Adventurer; The Young Outlaw; The Young Salesman, and Luke
Walton..

CHAPTER I

"Sit up to the table, children, breakfast's ready."

The speaker was a woman of middle age, not good-looking in the ordinary
acceptation of the term, but nevertheless she looked good. She was
dressed with extreme plainness, in a cheap calico; but though cheap, the
dress was neat. The children she addressed were six in number, varying
in age from twelve to four. The oldest, Harry, the hero of the present
story, was a broad-shouldered, sturdy boy, with a frank, open face,
resolute, though good-natured.

"Father isn't here," said Fanny, the second child.

"He'll be in directly. He went to the store, and he may stop as he comes
back to milk."

The table was set in the center of the room, covered with a coarse
tablecloth. The breakfast provided was hardly of a kind to tempt an
epicure. There was a loaf of bread cut into slices, and a dish of boiled
potatoes. There was no butter and no meat, for the family were very
poor.

The children sat up to the table and began to eat. They were blessed
with good appetites, and did not grumble, as the majority of my readers
would have done, at the scanty fare. They had not been accustomed to
anything better, and their appetites were not pampered by indulgence.

They had scarcely commenced the meal when the father entered. Like his
wife, he was coarsely dressed. In personal appearance he resembled his
oldest boy. His wife looking up as he entered perceived that he looked
troubled.

"What is the matter, Hiram?" she asked. "You look as if something had
happened."

"Nothing has happened yet," he answered; "but I am afraid we are going
to lose the cow."

"Going to lose the cow!" repeated Mrs. Walton in dismay.

"She is sick. I don't know what's the matter with her."

"Perhaps it is only a trifle. She may get over it during the day."

"She may, but I'm afraid she won't. Farmer Henderson's cow was taken
just that way last fall, and he couldn't save her."

"What are you going to do?"

"I have been to Elihu Perkins, and he's coming over to see what he can
do for her. He can save her