Part 15 (1/2)

In spite of his rags and his dirty face and hands Charley Gamp had a winning way about him, and the boys and girls easily induced him to follow them to the hotel. Here they waited for the return of Dunston Porter, and then asked what might be done with the waif.

”You'll have your hands full if you want to help every waif that comes along,” said Dave's uncle, with a smile. ”Every big city has hundreds of them.”

”Well, we can't aid every one, but we do want to aid Charley,” answered Laura. And then she and the others told of what had occurred at the post-office.

”I don't know exactly how much we can do,” said Dunston Porter, slowly.

”I know a number of people here, it is true, but whether any of them will want to bother with this lad is a question. However, after lunch I'll look into the matter.”

As the urchin was too dirty and ragged to eat in the hotel, he was given a quarter of a dollar for his dinner and told to come back in half an hour. This he did willingly, and a little later Mr. Porter, Dave, and the two girls sallied forth to see what could be done for the homeless boy.

The quest was more successful than they had antic.i.p.ated. Mr. Porter knew a certain Mr. Latham, who was in the wholesale fruit business, and this gentleman agreed to give Charley Gamp a job, at two dollars a week and his board. He was to live with a man who had charge of a warehouse where fruit was unloaded, and was to be sent to night school.

This settled, the waif was fitted out with new clothing and other things, and the boys and girls and Mr. Porter made up a purse for him of twenty dollars.

”You had better put the money in a bank,” said Dave. ”Then you can use it as you need it,--or put more to it.”

”Twenty dollars!” gasped Charley Gamp, when he saw the money. ”Wow! Say, I'll be a millionaire before you know it, won't I?” And this remark caused a laugh. He promised to put the money in a savings bank, where it would draw interest, and said he would try his best to add to it from his weekly wages.

”And will you go to school regularly?” asked Mr. Porter.

”Yes, sir, I'll give you my word,” replied the street boy, promptly.

”And as soon as you learn to write, you must send us letters,” put in Jessie. ”I shall wish to hear from you very much.”

”I'll write, miss. I can write a little already--printing letters,”

answered Charley Gamp.

”Then here is my address,” and Jessie handed over her card, and Laura did the same. Mr. Latham promised to let Mr. Porter know how the boy got along, and also promised to make some inquiries in the hope of locating the lad's father. Charley Gamp was extremely grateful for all that had been done for him, and when he parted from his new friends there were tears in his eyes.

”My mother used to tell me there was angels,” he said to Jessie and Laura. ”I didn't believe it much. But I do now, 'cause you're angels!”

And he nodded his head earnestly, to show that he meant what he said.

”And now, ho, for the boundless West!” cried Dave, when the party was on its way to the depot. ”Now for the plains and the mountains, the canyons and the rivers, the cattle and the broncos, the campfires and the cowboys, and the la.s.so and the rifle, the----”

”h.e.l.lo, Dave is wound up!” interrupted the senator's son.

”Must have some of that ranch air in his lungs already,” added Phil. ”I suppose the first thing you'll want to do will be to break in a bronco, ride a couple of hundred miles, and la.s.so a couple of dozen buffaloes.”

”Sure thing,” answered Dave. ”Then we'll build a roaring campfire, cook a ten-pound bear steak and eat it, shoot half a dozen Apache Indians, find a few fifteen-pound nuggets of gold, and--wake up and find the mince pie you had for supper didn't agree with you.” And this unexpected ending brought forth a roar of laughter, in which even Mr. Porter joined.

”You won't find it so exciting as all that at Star Ranch,” said Laura, after the others had quieted down. ”But I think you'll be able to put in the time doing one thing or another.”

”I reckon we'll hunt up some excitement,” said the senator's son. And they did, as we shall speedily see.

CHAPTER X

OFF FOR THE BOUNDLESS WEST