Ragged Dick quotes

“Well, I’m glad to hear you say that. I believe there’s some good in you, Dick, after all.”

“Oh, I’m a rough customer!” said Dick. “But I wouldn’t steal. It’s mean.”

“I’m glad you think so, Dick,” and the rough voice sounded gentler than at first. “Have you got any money to buy your breakfast?”

“Yes, sir,” said Dick, always ready to joke;

“I have to pay such a big rent for my manshun up on Fifth Avenoo, that I can’t afford to take less than ten cents a shine. I’ll give you a bully shine, sir.”

“Be quick about it, for I am in a hurry. So your house is on Fifth Avenue, is it?”

“I believe,” said the gentleman, examining his pocketbook, “I haven’t got anything short of twenty-five cents. Have you got any change?”

“Not a cent,” said Dick. “All my money’s invested in the Erie Railroad.”

“Shall I get the money changed, sir?”

“What hotel did you stop at?”

“Yes, sir, I slept in a box on Spruce Street.”

“How did you like it?” he asked.

“I wonder if I ain’t dreamin’,” said Dick, once more surveying himself doubtfully in the glass.

“I’m afraid I’m dreamin’, and shall wake up in a barrel, as I did night afore last.”

“Shall I pinch you so you can wake here?” asked Frank, playfully.

“Then I could show you. You won’t be a bootblack all your life, you know.”

“No,” said Dick; “I’m goin’ to knock off when I get to be ninety.”

“Before that, I hope,” said Frank, smiling.

“No, I suppose not,” said Frank, thoughtfully. “But you would get more at the end of the first year.”

“Yes,” said Dick; “but by that time I’d be nothin’ but skin and bones.”

Frank laughed. “That reminds me,” he said, “of the story of an Irishman, who, out of economy, thought he would teach his horse to feed on shavings. So he provided the horse with a pair of green spectacles which made the shavings look eatable.

“No, I should think not,” said Frank, smiling. “You’re a queer boy, Dick.”

“Well, I’ve been brought up queer. Some boys is born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Victoria’s boys is born with a gold spoon, set with di’monds; but gold and silver was scarce when I was born, and mine was pewter.”

“Perhaps the gold and silver will come by and by, Dick. Did you ever hear of Dick Whittington?”

“Yes,” said Dick,

“I ain’t knocked round the city streets all my life for nothin’.”

“Can’t you learn at school?”

“I can’t go to school ’cause I’ve got my livin’ to earn. It wouldn’t do me much good if I learned to read and write, and just as I’d got learned I starved to death.”

“But are there no night-schools?”

“Oh, you’re in league with him, I dare say,” said the woman spitefully. “You’re as bad as he is, I’ll be bound.”

“You’re a nice female, you be!” said Dick, ironically.

“Don’t you dare to call me a female, sir,” said the lady, furiously.

“He’s a baby,” said Dick, contemptuously. “He’d ought to know how to take care of himself and his money.

A feller has to look sharp in this city, or he’ll lose his eyeteeth before he knows it.

”

“I don’t rightly know; but I think there are about fifty thousand.”

“It’s a pretty large family,” said Dick. “Have I got to learn ’em all?”

“That will not be necessary. There are a large number which you would never find occasion to use.”

“Do you expect to get this place when there’s gentlemen’s sons applying for it? A bootblack in a store! That would be a good joke.”

Boys as well as men are selfish, and, looking upon Dick as a possible rival, the boys who listened seemed disposed to take the same view of the situation.

“That’s what I say,” said one of them, taking sides with Roswell.

“Just my luck,” said Dick; “I was born too late. I’d orter have been an Indian, and lived in splendor on my present capital.”

“I’m afraid you’d have found your present business rather unprofitable at that time.”

But Dick had gained something more valuable than money. He had studied regularly every evening, and his improvement had been marvellous. He could now read well, write a fair hand, and had studied arithmetic as far as Interest.

His street education had sharpened his faculties, and taught him to rely upon himself. He knew that it would take him a long time to reach the goal which he had set before him, and he had patience to keep on trying.

He knew that he had only himself to depend upon, and he determined to make the most of himself⁠—a resolution which is the secret of success in nine cases out of ten.

“Dick,” said Fosdick, one evening, after they had completed their studies, “I think you’ll have to get another teacher soon.”

“So so. Why don’t you call round, some time?”

“All my evenin’s is devoted to literatoor and science,” said Dick. “Thank you all the same.”

“Where do you hang out?” inquired Travis, in choice language, addressing Fosdick.

“That’s a queer name,” said the clerk, surveying him a little curiously. “Are you Ragged Dick?”

“If you don’t believe me, look at my clo’es,” said Dick.

“That’s pretty good proof, certainly,” said the clerk, laughing. “If that isn’t your name, it deserves to be.”

“That’s pretty good proof, certainly,” said the clerk, laughing. “If that isn’t your name, it deserves to be.”

“I believe in dressin’ up to your name,” said Dick.

“Do you know anyone in Barnton, Connecticut?” asked the clerk, who had by this time found the letter.

“Yes,” said Dick, promptly.

“I’ve been employin’ your tailor. If my face was only dirty we’d be taken for twin brothers.”

“So you’ve give up tryin’ to be a swell?”

“I don’t b’lieve you’ve got any better clo’es,” said Micky.

“All right,” said Dick, “I won’t charge you nothin’ for what you believe.”

Here a customer presented himself for Micky, and Dick went back to his room to change his clothes, before resuming business.