Andy Grant's Pluck (Illustrated)

When his father can no longer afford to pay for his education, young Andy Grant experiences both good and bad fortune as he tries to make his way in the world. Accused of a theft of jewelry he did not commit, Andy nonetheless loses his first job in New York City. But, believed in by a wealthy real estate mogul, Andy gets another job, learns the business, and races to earn enough money to pay off the mortgage on his father's before foreclosure.

Horatio Alger, Jr. (January 13, 1832 – July 18, 1899) was a prolific 19th-century American author, best known for his many formulaic juvenile novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty. His writings were characterized by the "rags-to-riches" narrative, which had a formative effect on America during the Gilded Age.