Bernard Brooks is a fifteen year old orphan who is sent to Ezekiel Snowdon's rural boarding school by his New York guardian, Cornelius McCracken, who secretly appropriated money from the young man. Bernard runs away from the school to escape beatings meeting characters during his efforts to reclaim what is rightly his. Horatio Alger, Jr. authored about seventy books. He was the son of a clergyman, graduated from Harvard. His stories are pure, inspiring and as endearing today as they were when first published.