who has to earn his dinner before he can eat it.

Bobby's father and mother had just such an ambition, only it was so
modest that the merchant would have laughed at it. They wanted to own
the little black house in which they resided, so that they could not
only be sure of a home while they lived, but have the satisfaction of
living in their own house. This was a very reasonable ideal, compared
with that of the rich merchants I have mentioned; but it was even more
difficult for them to reach it, for the wages were small, and they had
many mouths to feed.

Mr. Bright had saved up fifty dollars; and he thought a great deal more
of this sum than many people do of a thousand dollars. He had had to
work very hard and be very prudent in order to accumulate this sum,
which made him value it all the more highly.

With this sum of fifty dollars at his command, John Bright felt rich;
and then, more than ever before, he wanted to own the little black
house. He felt as grand as a lord; and as soon as the forty-nine
dollars had become fifty, he waited upon Mr. Hardhand, a little crusty
old man, who owned the little black house, and proposed to purchase it.

The landlord was a hard man. Every body in Riverdale said he was mean
and stingy. Any generous-hearted man would have been willing to make
an easy bargain with an honest, industrious, poor man, like John
Bright, who wished to own the house in which he lived; but Mr.
Hardhand, although he was rich, only thought how he could make more
money. He asked the poor man four hundred dollars for the old house
and the little lot of land on which it stood.