Making His Way

Two boys were walking in the campus of the Bridgeville Academy.

They were apparently of about the same age-somewhere from fifteen to sixteen-but there was a considerable difference in their attire.

Herbert Grant was neatly but coarsely dressed, and his shoes were of cowhide, but his face indicated a frank, sincere nature, and was expressive of intelligence.

Horatio Alger, Jr. (January 13, 1832 - July 18, 1899) was a prolific 19th-century American author, most famous for his novels following the adventures of bootblacks, newsboys, peddlers, buskers, and other impoverished children in their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of respectable middle-class security and comfort.

His novels about boys who succeed under the tutelage of older mentors were hugely popular in their day.