This was an adventurous and exciting story. Full of mystery, suspense, and adventure. This story did not have as many lessons as most of Horatio Alger's books. Horatio Alger wrote 135 dime novels in the latter part of the 19th century. His stories were rags to riches stories illustrating how down-and-out boys might be able to achieve the American Dream. Alger's stories empathize the need for hard work and honesty as a way to get ahead. Ragged Dick was his first novel published in 1867. Jack Harding was a boy of twelve. One morning as jack left to buy milk for breakfast he found a basket on the doorstep. Having found a baby girl on their doorstep seven years previously, Jack and his parents are alarmed when a lady claiming to have been the infant's nurse arrives to reclaim the child