Tom, The Bootblack

Tom is a fifteen year old boy who lives in New York City with an old man named Jacob in Mrs. Flanagan’s rooming house. They pose as grandfather and grandson, but, while Tom understands that they are no real relation, he knows nothing about his real family. Tom makes a living for them both as a street bootblack. Just before Jacob dies, he tells the boy that he is really Gilbert Grey, the son of a wealthy Cincinnati, OH, businessman named John Grey. However, John’s brother James conspired with Jac