This individual was none other than Master Dickey Spry, who had earned his last name because of the quickness of his movements, and who had borne it so long that there was considerable doubt as to whether he remembered his parents' name or not.
Master Spry was leaning against a lamp-post in an attitude of deepest dejection, looking down into the gutter as if he expected to see there some help arise to aid him in his evident trouble.
Now Dickey Spry was the founder of the house in which Ben and Johnny took so much pride. He it was who had discovered that snug place, replete with all needful modern conveniences, and Ben and Johnny had purchased it of him for fifty cents, paying ten cents per week on the instalment plan, and having already made three payments according to agreement.
Dickey had not noticed them when they first came up, and it was not until Ben touched him on the shoulder that he appeared to hear what they said.
"What's the matter with yer?" asked Ben, anxiously. "You look as if somebody'd stole yer an' carried yer off. What's up now?"
"Busted," replied Dickey, mournfully, and then he began surveying the gutter again.
"Busted!" echoed the two boys in the same breath; and Ben asked, eagerly,
"You don't mean to say that you've gone up--failed?"
"That's jest it. I trusted out as much as thirty cents, an' then I got Tim Dooley to 'tend the stand for me this forenoon, an' when I come back I couldn't find anything but the stand, an' that, you know, I hired. All ther nuts an' Tim had gone off."
The boys were so thoroughly overwhelmed by the news of this misfortune that it was some time before Ben could ask,
"I've been lookin' everywhere, an' I can't hear nothin' 'bout him, an' I can't make any of ther fellers pay me what they owe me, so I'm all cleaned out."
Ben looked at Johnny inquiringly for an instant, and when that young gentleman nodded his head, he said,
"Well, we owe yer twenty cents that ain't due yet, Dickey, but we've got ther money, an' we'll pay it to yer now."
"I don't want it," replied the unfortunate tradesman, "an' I didn't say what I did to make you pay me. If you fellers will let me own twenty cents' worth of ther house I'll be all right, for then I'll have a place to live, an' I kin get back in ther boot-blackin' bizness agin."