it that he
became quite bewildered. One paper described his young friend Cedric as
an infant in arms,--another as a young man at Oxford, winning all the
honors, and distinguishing himself by writing Greek poems; one said he
was engaged to a young lady of great beauty, who was the daughter of a
duke; another said he had just been married; the only thing, in fact,
which was NOT said was that he was a little boy between seven and eight,
with handsome legs and curly hair. One said he was no relation to
the Earl of Dorincourt at all, but was a small impostor who had sold
newspapers and slept in the streets of New York before his mother
imposed upon the family lawyer, who came to America to look for the
Earl's heir. Then came the descriptions of the new Lord Fauntleroy and
his mother. Sometimes she was a gypsy, sometimes an actress, sometimes a
beautiful Spaniard; but it was always agreed that the Earl of Dorincourt
was her deadly enemy, and would not acknowledge her son as his heir
if he could help it, and as there seemed to be some slight flaw in the
papers she had produced, it was expected that there would be a long
trial, which would be far more interesting than anything ever carried
into court before. Mr. Hobbs used to read the papers until his head was
in a whirl, and in the evening he and Dick would talk it all over. They
found out what an important personage an Earl of Dorincourt was, and
what a magnificent income he possessed, and how many estates he owned,
and how stately and beautiful was the Castle in which he lived; and the
more they learned, the more excited they became.

"Seems like somethin' orter be done," said Mr. Hobbs. "Things like them
orter be held on to--earls or no earls."

But there really was nothing they could do but each write a letter to
Cedric, containing assurances of their friendship and sympathy. They
wrote those letters as soon as they could after receiving the news; and
after having written them, they handed them over to each other to be
read.

This is what Mr. Hobbs read in Dick's letter:

"DERE FREND: i got ure letter an Mr. Hobbs got his an we are sory u are
down on ure luck an we say hold on as longs u kin an dont let no one git
ahed of u. There is a lot of ole theves wil make al they kin of u ef u
dont kepe ure i skined. But this is mosly to say that ive not forgot
wot u did fur me an if there aint no better way cum over here an go in
pardners with me. Biznes is fine an ile see n