Ragged Dick: Or, Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks: Chapter 23 Summary & Analysis

Travis approaches the clerk and requests to withdraw the money. The clerk acts as though this is perfectly normal but trips up Travis—who is an older man—when he says that the account is registered to a fourteen-year-old boy.

Travis claims that the account belongs to his younger brother, who is unable to come himself because he’s sick with the measles. The clerk replies that he must be feeling better, as Dick jumps from behind the counter to confront Travis.

Travis attempts to flee but is met at the door by a police officer who drags him off as Travis yells threats to Dick. The narrator again intervenes to say that Travis would be convicted to nine months in prison, after which he found his way to California and forgot entirely about his threats against Dick.

Dick immediately leaves the bank in order to give Tom Wilkins his money, so that the younger boy can stave off his family’s eviction. Dick throws in an extra dollar, for a grand total of five, so that the boy can buy food as well. Dick feels extremely satisfied by the chance to help the family, and notes with some that five dollars was the same amount that Mr. Whitney had given him previously with the request that he “pay it forward” when he was able.