business."

"I hope you'll succeed, Paul."

"Better than I did in drawing horses, eh, Jimmy?"

"Yes, I hope so, Paul," said the little boy.

"Don't you show that horse to visitors and pretend it's yours, Jimmy."

"No danger, Paul."

Paul went downstairs and into the street. He had no definite plan in
his head, but was ready for anything that might turn up. He did not feel
anxious, for he knew there were plenty of ways in which he could earn
something. He had never tried blacking boots, but still he could do it
in case of emergency. He had sold papers, and succeeded fairly in that
line, and knew he could again. He had pitted himself against other boys,
and the result had been to give him a certain confidence in his own
powers and business abilities. When he had first gone into the street
to try his chances there, it had been with a degree of diffidence. But
knocking about the streets soon gives a boy confidence, sometimes too
much of it; and Paul had learned to rely upon himself; but the influence
of a good, though humble home, and a judicious mother, had kept him
aloof from the bad habits into which many street boys are led.

So Paul, though his stock in trade had been stolen, and he was obliged
to seek a new kind of business, was by no means disheartened. He walked
a little way downtown, and then, crossing the City Hall Park, found
himself on Broadway.