This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1885 Excerpt: ... expedition to buy Christmas gifts, like the memorable one of the year before, when, after an exciting ride down town on the elevated railway, the brothers had walked hand in hand along a great thoroughfare. Regi remembered every incident of that agreeable afternoon. There, toward Christmas time, a hundred venders on the curbstone blocked the way, and in the clear, cold afternoon, all was merriment. The little boy in his long brown overcoat and cap edged with otter fur, clinging to his brother's hand, trudging along and enjoying himself till his cheeks bloomed like winter roses, had won many a friendly glance from passers-by. Regi's store of pocket-money had been spent at last, and his arms and pockets were crowded with all sorts of curious odds and ends, selected by himself as gifts to the household at home. Suddenly, he had stopped short, begging Fred to go ahead a little way. Fred complied, while Regi felt in all his pockets, with an expression of dismay. "Oh! dear!" he had said to himself. "If I haven't gone and forgotten Fred; and I have but one single penny left. I can't borrow from him, to buy his own Christmas gift. I wish I hadn't spent seventy-five cents on that jumping mouse for the cook's husband. What will one penny buy?" At this point, his eye had lit upon a stall for the sale of cheap stationery, and, recalling the fact that Fred had complained of finding no blotter on his bedroom writing table, Regi triumphantly purchased a small piece of pink blotting-paper, of which, carefully wrapped up, he had made the greatest mystery for the rest of the expedition. When they regained Broadway, Fred had called a cab--a hansom, to Regi's satisfaction--and getting in, with all their i v parcels about them, ordered the man to drive to Delmonico's. "Where ar...