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THE PRINCESS AND JOE POTTER

[Illustration: JOE FINDING THE PRINCESS.

(_See page 22._)]




THE PRINCESS AND JOE POTTER

BY

JAMES OTIS

AUTHOR OF

"JENNY WREN'S BOARDING-HOUSE," "TEDDY AND CARROTS," ETC.

Illustrated by

VIOLET OAKLEY

[Illustration]

BOSTON
ESTES AND LAURIAT
PUBLISHERS


_Copyright, 1898_
BY ESTES AND LAURIAT

Colonial Press:
Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co.
Boston, U. S. A.




CONTENTS.



CHAPTER                       PAGE

I. A RUINED MERCHANT            11

II. THE PRINCESS                26

III. AN ADVERTISEMENT           41

IV. JOE'S FLIGHT                60

V. IN THE CITY                  73

VI. DAN, THE DETECTIVE          86

VII. AUNT DORCAS                98

VIII. A HUNGRY DETECTIVE       115

IX. A FUGITIVE                 127

X. THE JOURNEY                 141

XI. A BRIBE                    157

XII. A STRUGGLE IN THE NIGHT   171

XIII. A CONFESSION             188

XIV. A RAY OF LIGHT            201

XV. AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL      219

XVI. THE REWARD                234




ILLUSTRATIONS.


                                                                      PAGE

JOE FINDING THE PRINCESS                                    _Frontispiece_

"HE BEGAN TO FEED THE LITTLE MAID"                                      51

"DAN POINTED TO AN ADVERTISEMENT"                                       57

"'MAY WE COME IN AN' STAY A LITTLE WHILE?'"                             81

"JOE POINTED TO A TINY COTTAGE"                                        101

"SHE HAD A PLATE HEAPED HIGH WITH COOKIES"                             108

"'WELL, BLESS THE BOY, HE DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO PLANT POTATOES!'"     143

"THE PRINCESS SUFFERED AUNT DORCAS TO KISS HER"                        167

"A DARK FORM LEAPED THROUGH THE OPEN WINDOW"                           185

JOE AND DAN DISAGREE                                                   207

"COME ON QUICK, PLUMS! DAN'S SET THE BARN A-FIRE!'"                    215

"JOE, BELIEVING HIMSELF ALONE, BEGAN TO SOB AS IF HIS HEART
     WERE BREAKING"                                                    225

"THEN AUNT DORCAS AND HER FAMILY WERE READY FOR THE RIDE"              241

"'MCGOWAN'S RESTAURANT AIN'T IN IT ALONGSIDE OF WHAT
     WE STRUCK UP AT THE PRINCESS'S HOUSE'"                            245

TAILPIECE                                                              249




THE PRINCESS AND JOE POTTER.




CHAPTER I.

A RUINED MERCHANT.


"Hello, Joe Potter! What you doin' up in this part of the town?"

The boy thus addressed halted suddenly, looked around with what was very
like an expression of fear on his face, and then, recognising the
speaker, replied, in a tone of relief:

"Oh, it's you, is it, Plums?"

"Of course it's me. Who else did you think it was? Say, what you doin'
'round here? Who's tendin' for you now?"

"Nobody."

"It don't seem as though this was the time of day when you could afford
to shut up shop."

"But that's what I have done."

"Got some 'portant business up here at the _de_pot, eh?"

Joe shook his head mournfully, stepped back a few paces that he might
lean against the building, and looked about him with a languid air,
much as if there was no longer anything pleasing for him in life.

Plums, or to give him his full name, George H. Plummer, gazed at his
friend in mild surprise.

Any other boy of Joe Potter's acquaintance would have been astonished at
the great change which had come over him; but Plums was not given to
excesses of any kind, save in the way of eating. That which would have
excited an ordinary lad only served to arouse Plums in a mild degree,
and perhaps it was this natural apathy which served to give Master
Plummer such an accumulation of flesh. He was what might be called a
very fat boy, and was never known to move with sufficient energy to
reduce his weight.

Sim Jepson stated that Plums sold newspapers in the vicinity of the
Grand Central Station because he lived only a couple of blocks away, and
therefore had sufficient time to walk to his place of business during
the forenoon.

"How he ever earns enough to pay for fillin' hisself up is more'n I can
make out," Master Jepson had said, with an air of perplexity. "By the
time he's sold ten papers, he's ate the profits off of twenty, an' acts
like he was hungrier than when he begun."

As Plums waited for, rather than solicited, customers, he gazed in an
indolent fashion at the dejected-looking friend, who might have served,
as he stood leaning against the building on this particular June day, as
a statue of misery.

Joe Potter was as thin as his friend was stout, and, ordinarily, as
active as Plums was indolent. His listless bearing now served to arouse
Master Plummer's curiosity as nothing else could have done.

"Business been good down your way?" he finally asked.

"It's mighty bad. I got stuck on a bunch of bananas, and lost thirty-two
cents last week. Then oranges went down till you couldn't hardly see
'em, an' I bought a box when they was worth two dollars. It seems like
as if every _I_talian in the city, what ain't blackin' boots, has
started a fruit-stand, an' it's jest knocked the eye out of business."

"I shouldn't think you could afford to lay 'round up here if it is as
bad as all that."

"It don't make any difference where I am now, 'cause I've busted; Plums,
I've busted. Failed up yesterday, an' have got jest sixteen cents to my
name."

"Busted!" Master Plummer exclaimed. "Why, you told me you had more'n
seven dollars when you started that fruit-stand down on West Street."

"Seven dollars an' eighty-three cents was the figger, Plums, an' here's
what's left of it."

Joe took from his pocket a handful of pennies, counting them slowly to
assure himself he had made no mistake in the sum total.

Master Plummer was so overwhelmed by the sad tidings, that two intending
purchasers passed him by after waiting several seconds to be served, and
Joe reminded him of his inattention to business by saying, sharply:

"Look here, Plums, you mustn't shut down on business jest 'cause I've
busted. Why don't you sell papers when you get the chance?"

"I didn't see anybody what wanted one. I'm jest knocked silly, Joe,
about your hard luck. How did it happen?"

"That's what I can't seem to make out. I kept on sellin' stuff, an' of
course had to buy more; but every night the money was smaller an'
smaller, till I didn't have much of any left."

"I felt kind of 'fraid you was swellin' too big, Joe. When a feller
agrees to give five dollars a month rent, an' hires a clerk for a dollar
a week, same's you did, he's takin' a pretty good contract on his
shoulders. Did you pay Sim Jepson his wages all right?"

"Yes, I kept square with him, and I guess that's where most of my money
went. Sim owns the stand now."

"He owns it? Why, he was your clerk."

"Don't you s'pose I know that? But he was gettin' a dollar a week clean
money, an' it counted up in time. If things had been the other way, most
likely I'd own the place to-day."

Master Plummer was silent for an instant, and then a smile as of
satisfaction overspread his fat face.

"I'll tell you how to do it, Joe: hire out to Sim, an' after a spell
you'll get the stand back ag'in."

"That won't work; I tried it. You see, when it come yesterday, I owed
him a dollar for wages, an' thirty cents I'd borrowed. There wasn't
more'n ninety cents' worth of stuff in the stand, an' Sim said he'd got
to be paid right sharp. Of course I couldn't raise money when I'd jest
the same's failed, an' told him so. He offered to square things if I'd
give him the business; an' what else could I do? I left there without a
cent to my name; but earned a quarter last night, an' here's what's left
of it."

The ruined merchant mournfully jingled the coins in his hand, while he
gazed dreamily at the railway structure overhead, and Master Plummer
regarded him sympathetically.

"What you goin' to do now?" the fat boy asked, after a long pause.

"That's jest what I don't know, Plums. If I had the money, I reckon I'd
take up shinin' for a spell, even if the _I_talians are knockin' the
life out of business."

"Why don't you sell papers, same's you used to?"

"Well, you see when I went into the fruit-stand I sold out my rights
'round the City Hall, to Dan Fernald, an' it wouldn't be the square
thing for me to jump in down there ag'in."

"There's plenty of chances up-town."

"I don't know about that. S'posen I started right here, then I'd be
rubbin' against you; an' it's pretty much the same everywhere. I tell
you, Plums, there's too many folks in this city. I ain't so certain but
I shall go for a sailor; they say there's money in that business."

"S'posen there was barrels in it, how could you get any out?" and in his
astonishment that Joe should have considered such a plan even for a
moment, Master Plummer very nearly grew excited. "You ain't big enough
to shin up the masts, an' take in sails, an' all that sort of work,
same's sailors have to do."

"I'd grow to it, of course. I don't expect I could go down to the docks
an' get a chance right off as a first-class hand on masts an' sails; but
I shouldn't go on a vessel, you know, Plums. I'm countin' on a
steamboat, where there ain't any shinnin' round to be done. Them fellers
that run on the Sound steamers have snaps, that's what they have. You
know my stand was on West Street, where I saw them all, and the money
they spend! It don't seem like as if half a dollar was any account to
'em."

"But what could you do on a steamboat?"

"I don't know yet; but I'll snoop 'round before the summer's over, an'
find out. Where you livin' now?"

"Well, say, Joe, you can talk 'bout steamboat snaps; but this house of
mine lays over 'em all. I s'pose I've got about the swellest layout in
this city, an' don't have to give up a cent for it, either. First off
McDaniels counted on chargin' me rent, an' after I'd been there a couple
of days he said it didn't seem right to take money, 'cause the place
wasn't fit for a dog. I'll tell you what it is, if McDaniels keeps his
dogs in any better shanty than that, they must be livin' on the fat of
the land."

"Who's McDaniels?"

"He's the blacksmith what owns the shanty where I live. You see, it was
like this: I allers sold him a paper every afternoon, an' when it
