nd pay the rent; so we sold out to a man who
paid half down, and promised to pay the rest in a year. But before the
year was up he shut up the shop, and went off, and we never got the rest
of the money. The money we did get did not last long. Mother got some
sewin' to do, but she couldn't earn much. I took to sellin' papers; but
after a while I went into the match business, which pays pretty good. I
pay mother five dollars a week, and sometimes more; so she gets along
well."

"I don't see how you make so much money, Jim," said Phil Cranmer. "I've
tried it, and I didn't get nothin' much out of it."

"Jim knows how," said one of the boys. "He's got enterprise."

"I go off into the country a good deal," said Jim. "There's plenty of
match boys in the city. Sometimes I hire another boy to come along and
help me. If he's smart I make money that way too. Last time I went out I
didn't make so much."

"How was that, Jim?"

"I went up to Albany on the boat. I was doin' pretty well up there, when
all to once they took me up for sellin' without a license; so I had to
pay ten dollars afore they'd let me off."

"Did you have the money to pay, Jim?"

"Yes, but it cleaned me out, so I didn't have but two dollars left. But
I travelled off into the country towns, and got it back in a week or
two. I'm glad they didn't get hold of Bill."

"Who was Bill?"

"The feller that sold for me. I couldn't have paid his fine too. That's
about all I have to tell."[B]

"Captain Jinks!" called out one of the boys; "your turn next."

Attention was directed to a tall, overgrown boy of sixteen, or possibly
seventeen, to whom for some unknown reason the name of the famous
Captain Jinks had been given.

"That aint my name," he said.

"Oh, bother your name! Go ahead."

"I aint got nothing to say."

"Go ahead and say it."

The captain was rather taciturn, but was finally induced to tell his
story.

[B] The main incidents of Jim Bagley's story are true, having been
communicated to the writer by Jim himself, a wide-awake boy of fifteen,
who appeared to possess decided business ability and energy. The name
only is fictitious.

"My father and mother are dead," he said. "I used to live with my sister
and her husband. He would get drunk off the money I brought home, and if
I didn't bring home as much as he expected, he'd fling a chair at my
head."

"He was a bully brother-in-law," said Jerry. "Did it hurt the chair
much?"

"If you want t