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                              TOM TEMPLE’S
                                 CAREER


                         By HORATIO ALGER, JR.

                Author of “Tom Thatcher’s Fortune,”
                “Tom Turner’s Legacy,” “The Train Boy,”
                “Ben Bruce,” Etc.


                       [Illustration: Decoration]




                     A. L. BURT COMPANY, PUBLISHERS
                                NEW YORK




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                    Copyright, 1888. BY A. L. BURT.

                                -------

                          TOM TEMPLE’S CAREER.

                         BY HORATIO ALGER, JR.




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                          TOM TEMPLE’S CAREER.

                                -------


                               CHAPTER I

                           NATHAN MIDDLETON.


ON THE main street, in the town of Plympton, stood a two-story house,
with a narrow lawn in front. It had a stiff, staid look of decorum, as
if no children were ever allowed to create disorder within its
precincts, or interfere with its settled regularity. It appeared to be a
place of business as well as a residence, for there was a thin plate on
one side of the front door, bearing the name of

                           NATHAN MIDDLETON,

                            INSURANCE AGENT.

Some people might object to turning even a part of their dwellings into
a business office, but then it saved rent, and Mr. Middleton was one of
the saving kind. He had always been saving from the first time he
received a penny at the mature age of five, and triumphing over the
delusive pleasures of an investment in candy, put it in a tin
savings-bank to the present moment. He didn’t marry until the age of
forty, not having dared to undertake the expense of maintaining two
persons. At that time, however, he fortunately encountered a maiden lady
of about his own age, whose habits were equally economical, who
possessed the sum of four thousand dollars. After a calculation of some
length he concluded that it would be for his pecuniary benefit to marry.
He proposed, was accepted, and in due time Miss Corinthia Carver became
Mrs. Nathan Middleton.

Their married life had lasted eight years, when they very unexpectedly
became the custodian of my hero.

One day Mr. Middleton sat in his office, drawing up an application for
insurance, when a stranger entered.

“Wants to insure his life, I hope,” thought Nathan, in the hope of a
commission.

“Take a chair, sir. What can I do for you?” he asked urbanely. “Have you
been thinking of insuring your life? I represent some of the best
companies in the country.”

“That isn’t my business,” said the visitor decisively.

Nathan looked disappointed, and waited for the business to be announced.

“You had a school-mate named Stephen Temple, did you not, Mr.
Middleton?”

“Yes; we used to go to school together. What has become of him?”

“He is dead.”

“I am sorry to hear it. Any family?”

“One son, a boy of sixteen. That is why I am here.”

“Really, I don’t understand you.”

“He has left his son to you,” said the stranger.

“What!” exclaimed Nathan, in dismay.

“Having no other friends, for he has been away from home nearly all his
life, he thought you would be willing to give the boy a home.”

Instantly there rose in the economical mind of Mr. Middleton an
appalling array of expenses, including board, washing, clothes, books
and so on, which would be likely to be incurred on behalf of a
well-grown boy, and he actually shuddered.

“Stephen Temple had no right to expect such a thing of me,” he said.
“The fact that we went to school together doesn’t give him any claim
upon me. If the boy hasn’t got any relations willing to support him he
should be sent to the poor-house.”

The visitor laughed heartily, much to Nathan Middleton’s bewilderment.

“I don’t see what I have said that is so very amusing,” he said stiffly.

“You talk of a boy worth forty thousand dollars going to the
poor-house!”

“What!” exclaimed Nathan, in open-eyed wonder.

