Hector's Inheritance, Or, the Boys of Smith Institute
Hector Roscoe was 15yrs old, he lived with his guardian Uncle Allan Roscoe and his son Guy, Hector had a very wealthy estate given to him after the death of his father, there had been an argument that day with Guy who had taken Hector's buggy without permission, there was a fight and Guy was beaten, Hector is sent for by his uncle and is told he is not the true owner of the estate as he was not his father's son but an orphan, his father he is told took the son of a dying boarding house lady as his own and was adopted, because there was no will his uncle claimed all the estate
Hector was to be sent to a boarding school in Smithfield under a Mr Socrates Smith who was told to treat Hector harshly, His uncle and Guy had never liked him and were glad to get rid of him, Hector did not believe he was an orphan, there was much doubt as to the qualifications of Mr Smith who ran the school, the pupils ranged from 10yrs to 19yrs, the oldest is Jim the nephew of Mr Smith, he was lucky though to have a very good teacher, although poorly paid, in Mr Crabb, the food at the school was terrible
Jim attacks Hector, he is used to bullying all the younger boys but Hector gives him a beating, Jim tells his uncle, a new boy starts and Hector makes him his friend, Jim trys to bully the boy but Hector comes along and gives him another beating, Jim swears revenge, Jim steals Mr Smiths wallet and puts it, after taking out 5 dollars, into Hector's spare trousers pocket unaware he is being watched by another boy Platt, Mr Smith tells the whole school that Hector is a thief and tells his uncle, Platt tells Mr Smith who took the wallet but Mr Smith sides with his nephew, Jim tries to get his own back on Platt with Wilkins when they were on their own, Mr Crabb stops it and after Jim tells Mr Smith that Crabb attacked him he is sacked
Hector manages to find Mr Crabb a job teaching a friend of his in New York and goes along with him, there is an incident here where Platt and Wilkins are accused of taking the 5 dollars, Platt and Wilkins fathers and the same for two other boys withdraw them from the school, Walter Boss a boy the same age as Hector meets them from the train, he is the boy to be tutored, on reaching his home he tells Mr Boss his story, out exploring the city he comes across a young boot black who was the son of the gardener from his estate, he says he got into a fight with Guy and when his father would not whip him was sacked, on walking home a young girl runs into the road and is about to be run over, Hector saves her just in time, an old man nearby is impressed and promises to find him a job
The young girls name was Gracie Newman and her father wrote to Hector and asked him to come and see him, he tells him his story, Newman asks him to go to California he wants him to go and bring his nephew Gregory back, Gregory had got in bad company and stolen from his uncle, but his uncle had forgave him, while he was there he was to go to Sacramento and ask about his parents, on the voyage he meets a clergyman who was there in 1855 and promised to find out what he could, Hector spots Gregory who is in a bad state but he agrees to come home, in Sacramento the clergyman tells him he was baptized at that church and he was given the names of the minister and the landlady they stayed with, in who's house he was born
He gained statements from the two and gave them to a lawyer, on walking home one evening Hector and Gregory are shot at on chasing the man they find he was hired by his Uncle Roscoe to kill him and was paid a thousand dollars, you will need to read on to find out if Hector managed to prove his inheritance, what happened to Uncle Roscoe and his son Guy, what about Jim the bully what became of him, did Larry the boot blacks father get his job back and how did Larry himself do, what about our scholar Mr Crabb what was his future and the final twist what happened to Mr Smiths school
A nice long read, one of Horatio Alger's better books, a good read and its free
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