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THE ERRAND BOY;
OR,
HOW PHIL BRENT WON SUCCESS.

BY HORATIO ALGER, Jr.,

Author of

"Joe's Luck," "Frank Fowler, the Cash Boy,"
"Tom Temple's Career," "Tom Thatcher's Fortune,"
"Ragged Dick," "Tattered Tom," "Luck and Pluck,"
etc., etc.





THE ERRAND BOY.





CHAPTER I.

PHIL HAS A LITTLE DIFFICULTY.

Phil Brent was plodding through the snow
in the direction of the house where he lived
with his step-mother and her son, when a snow-ball,
moist and hard, struck him just below his ear with
stinging emphasis. The pain was considerable, and
Phil's anger rose.

He turned suddenly, his eyes flashing fiercely,
intent upon discovering who had committed this outrage,
for he had no doubt that it was intentional.

He looked in all directions, but saw no one except
a mild old gentleman in spectacles, who appeared to
have some difficulty in making his way through the
obstructed street.

Phil did not need to be told that it was not the
old gentleman who had taken such an unwarrantable
liberty with him. So he looked farther, but
his ears gave him the first clew.

He heard a chuckling laugh, which seemed to
proceed from behind the stone wall that ran along the
roadside.

"I will see who it is," he decided, and plunging
through the snow he surmounted the wall, in time
to see a boy of about his own age running away
across the fields as fast as the deep snow would
allow.

"So it's you, Jonas!" he shouted wrathfully. "I
thought it was some sneaking fellow like you."

Jonas Webb, his step-brother, his freckled face
showing a degree of dismay, for he had not calculated
on discovery, ran the faster, but while fear
winged his steps, anger proved the more effectual
spur, and Phil overtook him after a brief run, from
the effects of which both boys panted.