In his five years of being a Newsie, the now eleven year old Dutchy had learned a lot. He knew just what to say to people to get them to buy papers, and he knew all the best selling spots in town. He still however, had not grasped reading completely. Three years ago Kloppman began to teach him, but he could not get it down like other people could. The letters often jumbled up and words were hard to see, but Dutchy could usually read the headlines and that was something he was proud of.

He watched as newsies came and went. Most of the boys that were there when he first came to the lodging house had left, except for Skip who was still around. They still sold together sometimes, but they were old enough now that they went out for long periods of time without any word to the other boys. Usually Dutchy would go off on his own in the morning, hang out in the city, and mosey back in sometime during the evening. Once a week or so Dutchy would come back early to the lodging house and help Kloppman who then would also help him with reading.

One morning Dutchy was standing outside of the distribution office squinting at the chalkboard that displayed the headlines. He always had a bit of trouble seeing them, but he decided his lack of reading was the cause, but the more he learned the more he realized that was not all it was.

"Looks like ya need glasses too."

Dutchy turned around to see a boy about his age standing next to him. He had seen him around the lodging house recently, but had not gotten a chance to talk to him yet. "How would you know?"

The boy shrugged. "I used to squint at everythin' too, dey don't call me Specs for nuthin'"

"I'm Dutchy, you're new right?" He smiled.

"Yeah, came in last week."

"Ya likin' the newsie life so far?"

Specs shrugged. "Pretty good, no rules, no one tellin' ya what to do, suits me fine."

"So tell me Specs, where does a person of our wealth standing find specs like those." Dutchy thought Specs may be onto something with the glasses thing. On top of his words getting jumbled, they also seemed blurry sometimes too.

"Well, like most things we acquire, they're 'borrowed'."

Dutchy nodded. "Well, I think I may need to find someone to 'borrow' some specs from."

"I think I can help ya out with dat." Specs started to walk away.

Dutchy was amused, so he decided to follow the boy. He had no idea where they were headed, but they began to walk selling papers along the way. After half their papers were gone, Dutchy noticed that they were not in Manhattan any longer, but he had not been this way before.

"Hey Specs, where are we goin'?"

Specs smiled. "To get ya somethin' to see better with."

"Okay, but where?"

"Same place I got mine, da Bronx."

Dutchy was confused a little. "Why do we gotta go all to da Bronx, for some specs?"

Specs sold his last paper. "Cause, when ya steal somethin' it's best not to do it where ya live." That was a very good point.

He continued to walk on, and Dutchy understood how they were going to acquire glasses. He had not really stolen anything before. Once a tomato fell off of a food cart and he picked it up and waked away with it, but beyond that he had not gone into the world of stealing. A lot of newsies did steal, and it was not something anyone really thought twice about. Most of the boys acquired a lot of their possessions from others without permission, but Dutchy had just been fortunate enough to not need anything bad enough to steal. Well until now that was. Dutchy's eyes were bad, and he knew glasses would help, so he was willing to do whatever Specs said to make reading a little easier.

"So how exactly are we gonna do this?" Dutchy was a couple of steps behind Specs.

The other boys seemed to be concentrating. "Foirst we'se gotta find da right person." A few moments later Specs perked up. "There." He pointed at a man across the street wearing a suit and glasses. He was carrying a briefcase as well.

"Okay, now what?" Dutchy was not sure how they were going to pull this off.

The boy began to walk so he did not lose the man across the street. "We need a plan."

They seemed to be following the man for quite a while before Specs came up with the right plan. Once Specs shared the plan he devised with Dutchy, they were ready to take action. The boys crossed the street and took their designated places. There would be a small window to accomplish what they set out for.

Specs was set to make the first move. He ran ahead of the man so he could double back and run into him hard enough to knock him down. Specs ran as fast as he could towards the man, looking over his shoulder as if he was getting chased by someone else. When he collided with the man it looked like he was distracted. The man fell and the contents of his briefcase went with him.

"Oh jeeze, I'm sorry mister, I wasn't payin' attention, here." Specs bent down to help the man.

"Watch where you're going next time, got it?" The man was reaching for his papers.

Dutchy saw his cue and ran up behind the man, slamming into the back of his head hard enough to launch his glasses off, and the papers in his hand. Specs acted quick and snatched the glasses up and handed them to Dutchy as he ran past.

"Sorry!" He said as he ran by.

The man was even more annoyed. "Dumb kids, always running wherever they please."

Specs smiled. "Looks like you're not havin' the best day huh?" He handed him the rest of the papers. "Sorry again for runnin' into you!" Specs took off before the man could say anything. He was still looking on the ground his now stolen glasses.

Specs caught up with Dutchy who was inspecting the glasses. "So how we'd do?"

Dutchy put them on and looked around. "Not bad, I think these'll work."

"Good, I figured they wouldn't be poirfect or nuthin' but they gotta be better than not havin' anythin'."

"Yeah, thanks Specs I owe ya one." Dutchy smiled, looking around at the world with his new eyes.

"How's about you buy me some lunch?" Specs started to walk back towards Manhattan.

Dutchy nodded. "Yeah, okay."

As they walked, Dutchy was looking around at everything, it was all just a bit clearer than normal. He looked at one of the street signs and found that he could identify the letters a little easier than before, though it still took a minute to really grasp the words. By late afternoon the two had made it back to Tibby's where a few other boys were. They joined them at their table and Dutchy bought Specs and himself some food.

After they were done they headed to the Horace Greeley statue to play some cards with the other boys. They did okay, though Skip cleaned up pretty well. Before Dutchy lost anymore money he decided to go back to the lodging house for the night. Specs followed, which he did not mind. Specs was really nice and so far had proved to be a good friend. Dutchy had always sort of waddled around and been kind of friends with everyone, but never really stuck with one person in particular.

"Hey Specs, you wanna sell with me tomorrow? If our escapades were anythin' to go by today, I bet we can come up with some good sellin' plans."

The boy smiled. "Yeah, that sounds good."

Dutchy got the book Kloppman gave him and practiced his reading and writing until the man came back up and told them all to go to bed. Once the lights were out, Dutchy took off his new glasses and set them on the table he shared with the boys above and next to him. After a few minutes he drifted off to sleep.

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AN: Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!