Read "Paul Ralston" by Mary Jane Holmes online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
With all his faults there was much that was good in him, and right influences could have brought it out. Neglected by his stepmother, treated with indifference by his sister, called a bad boy by nearly all who knew him, it was natural that the worst part of his nature should thrive until it bore its fruitage of vice.
"I am a sort of Ishmael, anyway," he used to say to himself, "and may as well have a good time being so."