When Dick had got through with his last customer the City Hall clock indicated eight o’clock.  He had been up an hour, and hard at work, and naturally began to think of breakfast.  He went up to the head of Spruce Street, and turned into Nassau.  Two blocks further, and he reached Ann Street.  On this street was a small, cheap restaurant, where for five cents Dick could get a cup of coffee, and for ten cents more, a plate of beefsteak with a plate of bread thrown in.  These Dick ordered, and sat down at a table.

It was a small apartment with a few plain tables unprovided with cloths, for the class of customers who patronized it were not very particular.  Our hero’s breakfast was soon before him.  Neither the coffee nor the steak were as good as can be bought at Delmonico’s; but then it is very doubtful whether, in the present state of his wardrobe, Dick would have been received at that aristocratic restaurant, even if his means had admitted of paying the high prices there charged.

Dick had scarcely been served when he espied a boy about his own size standing at the door, looking wistfully into the restaurant.  This was Johnny Nolan, a boy of fourteen, who was engaged in the same profession as Ragged Dick.  His wardrobe was in very much the same condition as Dick’s.

“Had your breakfast, Johnny?” inquired Dick, cutting off a piece of steak.

“No.”

“Come in, then.  Here’s room for you.”

“I aint got no money,” said Johnny, looking a little enviously at his more fortunate friend.

“Haven’t you had any shines?”

“Yes, I had one, but I shan’t get any pay till to-morrow.”

“Are you hungry?”

“Try me, and see.”

“Come in.  I’ll stand treat this morning.”

Johnny Nolan was nowise slow to accept this invitation, and was soon seated beside Dick.

“What’ll you have, Johnny?”

“Same as you.”

“Cup o’ coffee and beefsteak,” ordered Dick.

These were promptly brought, and Johnny attacked them vigorously.

Now, in the boot-blacking business, as well as in higher avocations, the same rule prevails, that energy and industry are rewarded, and indolence suffers.  Dick was energetic and on the alert for business, but Johnny the reverse.  The consequence was that Dick earned probably three times as much as the other.

“How do you like it?” asked Dick, surveying Johnny’s attacks upon the steak with evident complacency.

“It’s hunky.”

I don’t believe “hunky” is to be found in either Webster’s or Worcester’s big dictionary; but boys will readily understand what it means.

“Do you come here often?” asked Johnny.

“Most every day.  You’d better come too.”

“I can’t afford it.”

“Well, you’d ought to, then,” said Dick.  “What do you do I’d like to know?”

“I don’t get near as much as you, Dick.”