four
o'clock in the morning
to every one they saw , they had all their stock taken away and received a thrashing besides from a big newsman upon whose territory they had trespassed . Fortunately , however , they had already sold some papers , and came back with nearly as much as they started with . After a week of mishaps such as these , the two little fellows began to learn the ways of the trade -- the names of the different papers , and how many of each to get , and what sort of people to offer them to , and where to go and where to stay away from . After this , leaving home at four o'clock in the morning , and running about the streets , first with morning papers and then with evening , they might come home late at night with twenty or thirty cents apiece -- possibly as much as forty cents . From this they had to deduct their carfare , since the distance was so great ; but after a while they made friends , and learned still more , and then they would save their carfare . They would get on a car when the conductor was not looking , and hide in the crowd ; and three times out of four he would not ask for their fares , either not seeing them , or thinking they had already paid ; or if he did ask , they would hunt through their pockets , and then begin to cry , and either have their fares paid by some kind old lady , or else try the trick again on a new car . All this was fair play , they felt .