RUFUS AND ROSE

CHAPTER I.

NEW PLANS.


"So this is to be your first day in Wall Street, Rufus," said Miss
Manning.

"Yes," said Rufus, "I've retired from the newspaper business on a large
fortune, and now I'm going into business in Wall Street just to occupy
my time."

The last speaker was a stout, well-grown boy of fifteen, with a pleasant
face, calculated to inspire confidence. He looked manly and
self-reliant, and firm of purpose. For years he had been a newsboy,
plying his trade in the streets of New York, and by his shrewdness, and
a certain ready wit, joined with attention to business, he had met with
better success than most of his class. He had been a leader among them,
and had received the name of "Rough and Ready," suggested in part, no
doubt, by his name, Rufus; but the appellation described not inaptly his
prominent traits. He understood thoroughly how to take care of himself,
and thought it no hardship, that, at an age when most boys are tenderly
cared for, he was sent out into the streets to shift for himself.

His mother had been dead for some time. His step-father, James Martin,
was a drunkard, and he had been compelled to take away his little sister
Rose from the miserable home in which he had kept her, and had
undertaken to support her, as well as himself. He had been fortunate
enough to obtain a home for her with Miss Manning, a poor seamstress,
whom he paid for her services in taking care of Rose. His step-father,
in order to thwart and torment him, had stolen the little girl away, and
kept her in Brooklyn for a while, until Rufus got a clue to her
whereabouts, and succeeded in getting her back. At the time when the
story opens, he had just recovered her, and having been fortunate
enough to render an important service to Mr. Turner, a Wall Street
broker, was on this Monday morning to enter his office, at a salary of
eight dollars a week.

This sketch of the newsboy's earlier history is given for the benefit of
those who have not read the book called "Rough and Ready," in which it
is related at length. It is necessary to add that Rufus was in some
sense a capitalist, having five hundred dollars deposited in a
savings-bank to his credit. Of this sum, he had found three hundred one
day, which, as no claimant ever appeared for it, he had been justified
in appropriating to his own use. The remainder had been given him by Mr.
Turner, in partial acknowledgment of the service before referred to.

"Your new life will seem strange to you at first, Rufus," said Miss
Manning.

"Yes, it does already. When I woke up this morning, I was going to jump
out of bed in a hurry, thinking I must go round to Nassau Street to get
my papers. Then all at once I thought that I'd given up being a newsboy.
But it seemed queer."

"I didn't know but you'd gone back to your old business," said the
seamstress, pointing to a paper in his hand.