The next important quality that Ragged Dick possesses is his naturally high intellectual aptitude. Although the reader sees through Dick’s often ungrammatical speech, it is clear through his interactions with other characters in the book that he is a very intelligent young man. A good example of this can be seen when Dick is in confrontation with other boys on the street. A sort of archenemy of Dick’s would have to be Micky Maguire. Though it is obvious that Dick is not the equal of Micky in physical strength, he more than makes up for it with his quick wit and his ability to out think his much larger opponent. On one such occasion, Micky throws a stone at Dick while his back is turned and in the process trips and injures himself. Micky says, “I’ve most broke my arm” (p. 121). Dick wittily replies, “If it’s broke you can’t fire no more stones, which is a very cheerin’ reflection” (p. 121). Dick’s intelligence is also apparent in his studies with Fosdick. Before he started his tutoring sessions, Dick could hardly read at all and could barely scratch out his name. Dick humorously cites on specific occasion where he says, “. . . I was a newsboy a little while; so I learned a little, just so’s to find out what the news was. Sometimes I didn’t read straight and called the wrong news. One mornin’ I asked another boy what the paper said, and he told me the King of Africa was dead. I thought it was all right till folks began to laugh” (p. 108). Within a time period of about nine months, Dick was able to read pretty well and write very respectably. He was even able to answer a letter from his old friend, Frank. The fact that Dick is an extremely intelligent person to begin with truly helped his dream of becoming a respectable person and his subsequent rise up the social ladder.

Unlike his friend Henry Fosdick, Dick has a very charismatic way about him. This particular characteristic is very important in Dick’s ascent for a few reasons. For one thing, it allows Dick to make friends very easily. The books prime and most important example of this comes in Mr. Greyson. Dick was very quickly able to earn the respect of Mr. Greyson and his family (who happen to be very well respected in the community). Through this growing friendship, it is inevitable that Dick would automatically gain este

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