Ragged Dick

Travis had stolen Dick’s bank-book after overhearing that Dick had saved one hundred and seventeen dollars. Travis never liked to work and he spends more than the thirty dollars a month he earns. Travis had recently received a letter from an old acquaintance who claimed that he had already accumulated two thousand dollars from a mine in California. Travis wants to seek his fortune in the West, but he needed 75 dollars to pay for the ship’s passage. Consequently, Travis decided to “borrow” the sum from Dick without his permission when he knew that neither boy would be home during the daytime. When Travis found Dick’s bank-book instead of dollar bills, he waited a day to find out more about the bank’s regulations before trying to obtain the money. Travis also tried to learn whether Dick had discovered his loss, but Dick and Henry keep silent on the matter.

Dick arrives at the bank promptly when it opens in the morning. Since Dick makes regular deposits, the cashier knows him by sight. When Dick tells the bank clerk about the theft, he gives the description of Travis. Dick spies Travis on his way to the bank; he does not want to be seen so that Travis can be caught. The cashier hides Dick behind the counter before Travis walks up to his desk.

When Travis tries to withdraw all the money from Dick’s account, the cashier tells him that such an action would require a week’s notice. Travis then asks for a hundred dollars, writing his name as “Dick Hunter.” Meanwhile, the cashier secretly sends for a policeman. The cashier notes that Dick Hunter’s age is 14, but the whiskered Travis is 23. Travis quickly alters his story, claiming that he is withdrawing the money for his sick, younger brother. The cashier then reveals Dick and a policeman arrests Travis. Dick pities Travis, but the policeman says that the criminal will have to stand trial. Travis is sent to Blackwell’s Island for nine months and afterward given the opportunity to work his passage on a ship to San Francisco.

Dick gives Tom Wilkins the two dollars and offers more the following week if Tom’s mother does not get better. Dick feels proud of his ability to financially assist, as well as “the self-approval which always accompanies a generous and disinterested action” (192). A year earlier, Dick would not have been able to help, but now he can because of “his self-denial and judicious economy” (193). Dick realizes that his total gift of five dollars to Tom fulfilled what Mr. Whitney had told him to do when he gave that same amount to Dick: to help another boy who was “struggling upward” (193). Dick and Henry decide it will be safer to carry their bank-books with them in the future.

Henry brings a newspaper home and asks Dick if he would like to see his name in print. Disbelieving, Dick looks at where Henry points on the list of advertised letters. He sees that a letter has arrived for “Ragged Dick.” The boys conclude that the letter must be from Frank Whitney who promised to write Dick from his Connecticut boarding-school. Henry tells Dick that he should go to the post-office the next day to ask for the letter. Henry suggests that his friend wear his original ragged clothing to convince the postman that he is “Ragged Dick.” Now Dick is ashamed to be seen in these dirty clothes but he is willing to wear them to receive Frank’s letter. Frank writes that he is studying Latin and Greek at the school because his father wants him to attend college. Frank wishes that he had the money to pay for Dick to get an education at his school. He enjoys Dick’s company and believes that he is naturally intelligent.

Receiving a letter addressed to him gives Dick a new sense of importance. He realizes that if the letter had been sent a year earlier, he would not have been able to read it or write a good reply. Dick is thrilled to have a true friend like Frank Whitney and he “would like to have Frank witness the improvement he had made in his studies and mode of life” (199). On his way home, Dick encounters his old foe, Micky Maguire. Micky hates Dick for wearing better clothing than himself and feels triumphant when he sees Dick wearing old rags again. When Micky sarcastically comments on Dick’s clothing, Dick jokes, “I’ve been employin’ your tailor” (200).

Dick has a few doubts about his ability to write his first letter to Frank, but Henry encourages him to try. Although there are some mistakes in Dick’s letter, it contains Dick’s characteristic humor. For example, he writes that his address on Mott Street “aint very fashionable; but my manshun on Fifth Avenoo isn’t finished yet” (202). Henry tells Dick that the letter “is written just as you talk” (204). He advises Dick to send the uncorrected letter to Frank who will be amused by Dick’s humorous proposal to teach at his boarding-school. The letter reminds Dick of his amazing progress and he proudly mails it at the post-office.

Dick encounters Johnny Nolan on an errand. Johnny is astonished that Dick can write letters. Despite Dick’s encouragement to learn, Johnny lacks Dick’s energy and intelligence. The lazy Johnny is “not adapted to succeed in the life which circumstances had forced upon him […] a boot-black must depend upon the same qualities which gain success in higher walks of life” (205). 

Dick begins to search for a respectable position in a store or counting-room. He continues to work half the day as a bootblack to pay his expenses, including the entire room rent as compensation for Henry’s tutoring. Although Dick uses slang terms when he wants to joke, he has improved his manners. However, in a slow economy, merchants are not hiring new assistants and Dick fails to find a job.

One afternoon, Dick accompanies Henry on an excursion to Brooklyn. On the ferry-boat, the boys see a father with his two little children. One of them, a six-year-old boy, accidentally falls overboard into the water, but the horrified father does not know how to swim. Dick is a strong and expert swimmer. Dick immediately tries to rescue the boy when he sees him fall. In the excitement, Dick does not hear the anguished father offer thousands of dollars to anyone who would save his child. Dick catches the boy as he is sinking for the third time; the child clings to Dick with such terror that Dick can hardly swim.

The ferry-boat is far away. Dick and the child nearly drown, but men in a row-boat rescue them. The father gratefully receives his little boy on the wharf. The man speaks to Dick: “My brave boy, I owe you a debt I can never repay” (210). Dripping wet, Dick and the little boy are taken to a pleasant house, where a servant brings Dick a new, handsome suit to wear. Dick reads the note from the father, James Rockwell, who says that these clothes are the first installment of an unrepayable debt. Mr. Rockwell asks Dick to visit him at his counting-house the next day.

Dick’s new suit is the best he has ever worn. He jokingly tells himself: “My lucky stars are shinin’ pretty bright now. Jumpin’ into the water pays better than shinin’ boots; but I don’t think I’d like to try it more’n once a week” (213). Mr. Rockwell welcomes Dick to his counting-house and asks about his plans for the future. Dick frankly informs him about his past and his attempts to get a new job. When Mr. Rockwell asks Dick to write his name on a piece of paper, Dick writes “Richard Hunter” with good penmanship. After ascertaining that Dick knows some arithmetic, Mr. Rockwell hires Dick as a clerk for ten dollars a week with the promise of a higher salary in the future. Dick tells Mr. Rockwell that the sum is more than he can earn but promises to serve him faithfully.

The salary is three times as much as Dick had expected to obtain. He reflects that only a year earlier, he “could neither read nor write, and depended for a night’s lodging upon the chance hospitality of an alley-way or old wagon” (215). He wants to assist his friend Henry as he moves upward. When Dick returns home, he notices that his ragged coat and pants are missing. Later, he sees his old clothing worn by Micky Maguire. Dick is pleased to be finished with the “old vagabond life which he hoped never to resume” (215). He learns that Henry’s pay has increased to six dollars a week and the boys decide to shop for a new room to rent in a nicer part of the city. Dick plans to send his regular customers for bootblacking to Johnny Nolan since Johnny lacks enterprise and needs help. Dick retains his box and brush to remind himself of his hard history. He is no longer “Ragged Dick,” but “Richard Hunter, Esq. […] a young gentleman on his way to fame and fortune” (216).