Ben runs away from home and lives on the streets of New York City for years. He learns how to survive and finds work as a newsboy and as a baggage smasher, and works to make enough money to put away into the bank.
Horatio Alger Jr. ; January 13, 1832 – July 18, 1899) was a prolific 19th-century American writer, best known for his many young adult 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. (Excerpt from Wikipedia)