This is one of the last stories penned by that prince of all juvenile writers, Horation Alger, Jr., and is one of his best. It describes the adventures of a youth brought up in the country by an old hermit. When the hermit dies the boy obtains work at a nearby hotel and later on drifts to the city and obtains a position in another hotel. There is a mystery concerning the lad's identity and likewise the disappearance of a certain blue box, but in the end all terminates satisfactorily.