65114 - BOOK - A CHARGE TO KEEP ALDEN (SOFT BACK)

Reuben Watson Stone is a fourteen-year-old boy who lives in a New York city with his mother and younger sister Elizabeth (Beth). The family is poor because Reuben's father has been dead for some time, and Reuben doesn't go to school because, as the man of the house, he must go out each day to look for odd jobs so that he might earn enough money to get food, buy coal, and pay the rent. One night, he rescues a young drunken man named Edward Harrison who "rewards" him by offering him a job at St. Mark's Saloon, but Reuben refuses because he has seen first-hand the effects of drink in his encounter with Edward. His mother wonders if he shouldn't go ahead and take the job, but his decision is encouraged by their new neighbor, Miss Priscilla Hunter, who tells him that her father, brother, and a friend all died as a result of liquor.However, through Edward, Reuben meets a visiting businessman named Mr. Barrows who, taking a liking to the young boy for his strong moral convictions and honesty,