“In self-defence.”

“Just come out here, and try it fair?”

“No;” and Bobby hurried home, leaving the bully astonished, and discomfited by the winding up of the morning’s sport.

CHAPTER III.

In which the little black house is bought but not paid for.

Probably my young readers have by this time come to the conclusion that Bobby Bright was a very clever fellow—­one whose acquaintance they would be happy to cultivate.  Perhaps by this time they have become so far interested in him as to desire to know who his parents were, what they did, and in what kind of a house he lived.

I hope none of my young friends will think any less of him when I inform them that Bobby lived in an old black house which had never been painted, which had no flower garden in front of it, and which, in a word, was quite far from being a palace.  A great many very nice city folks would not have considered it fit to live in, would have turned up their noses at it, and wondered that any human beings could be so degraded as to live in such a miserable house.  But the widow Bright, Bobby’s mother, thought it was a very comfortable house, and considered herself very fortunate in being able to get so good a dwelling.  She had never lived in a fine house, knew nothing about velvet carpets, mirrors seven feet high, damask chairs and lounges, or any of the smart things which very rich and very proud city people consider absolutely necessary for their comfort.  Her father had been a poor man, her husband had died a poor man, and her own life had been a struggle to keep the demons of poverty and want from invading her humble abode.

Mr. Bright, her deceased husband, had been a day laborer in Riverdale.  He never got more than a dollar a day, which was then considered very good wages in the country.  He was a very honest, industrious man, and while he lived, his family did very well.  Mrs. Bright was a careful, prudent woman, and helped him support the family.  They never knew what it was to want for any thing.

Poor people, as well as rich, have an ambition to be something which they are not, or to have something which they have not.  Every person, who has an energy of character, desires to get ahead in the world.  Some merchants, who own big ships and big warehouses by the dozen, desire to be what they consider rich.  But their idea of wealth is very grand.  They wish to count it in millions of dollars, in whole blocks of warehouses; and they are even more discontented than the day laborer who has to earn his dinner before he can eat it.

Bobby’s father and mother had just such an ambition, only it was so modest that the merchant would have laughed at it.  They wanted to own the little black house in which they resided, so that they could not only be sure of a home while they lived, but have the satisfaction of living in their own house.  This was a very reasonable ideal, compared with that of the rich merchants I have mentioned; but it was even more difficult for them to reach it, for the wages were small, and they had many mouths to feed.