donable pride, "I did it."

"What could you do?"

"Sometimes one thing, and sometimes another," said Dick. "I changed
my business accordin' as I had to. Sometimes I was a newsboy, and
diffused intelligence among the masses, as I heard somebody say once
in a big speech he made in the Park. Them was the times when Horace
Greeley and James Gordon Bennett made money."

"Through your enterprise?" suggested Frank.

"Yes," said Dick; "but I give it up after a while."

"What for?"

"Well, they didn't always put news enough in their papers, and
people wouldn't buy 'em as fast as I wanted 'em to. So one mornin'
I was stuck on a lot of Heralds, and I thought I'd make a sensation.
So I called out 'GREAT NEWS! QUEEN VICTORIA ASSASSINATED!' All my
Heralds went off like hot cakes, and I went off, too, but one of
the gentlemen what got sold remembered me, and said he'd have me
took up, and that's what made me change my business."

"That wasn't right, Dick," said Frank.

"I know it," said Dick; "but lots of boys does it."

"That don't make it any better."

"No," said Dick, "I was sort of ashamed at the time, 'specially
about one poor old gentleman,--a Englishman he was. He couldn't
help cryin' to think the queen was dead, and his hands shook when
he handed me the money for the paper."

"What did you do next?"

"I went into the match business," said Dick; "but it was small sales
and small profits. Most of the people I called on had just laid in
a stock, and didn't want to buy. So one cold night, when I hadn't
money enough to pay for a lodgin', I burned the last of my matches
to keep me from freezin'. But it cost too much to get warm that way,
and I couldn't keep it up."

"You've seen hard times, Dick," said Frank, compassionately.

"Yes," said Dick, "I've knowed what it was to be hungry and cold,
with nothin' to eat or to warm me; but there's one thing I never
could do," he added, proudly.

"What's that?"

"I never stole," said Dick. "It's mean and I wouldn't do it."

"Were you ever tempted to?"

"Lots of times. Once I had been goin' round all day, and hadn't sold
any matches, except three cents' worth early in the mornin'. With
that I bought an apple, thinkin' I should get some more bimeby. When
evenin' come I was awful hungry. I went into a baker's just to look
at the bread. It made me feel kind o' good just to look at the bread
and cakes, and I thought maybe they would give me some. I asked 'em
wouldn't they g