“The Cash Boy, ” by Horatio Alger, Jr., as the name implies, is a story about a boy and for boys. Through some conspiracy, the hero of the story when a baby, was taken from his relatives and given into the care of a kind woman. Not knowing his name, she gave him her husband’s name, Frank Fowler. She had one little daughter, Grace, and showing no partiality in the treatment of her children, Frank never suspected that she was not his sister. However, at the death of Mrs. Fowler, all this was related to Frank. The children were left alone in the world. It seemed as though they would have to go to the poorhouse but Frank could not become reconciled to that.
A kind neighbor agreed to care for Grace, so Frank decided to start out in the world to make his way. He had many disappointments and hardships, but through his kindness to an old man, his own relatives and right name were revealed to him.
Horatio Alger Jr. (January 13, 1832 – July 18, 1899) was an American writer of young adult novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty. His writings were characterized by the "rags-to-riches" narrative, which had a formative effect on the United States during the Gilded Age.