Frank might well, without any derogation, have written to his friends, telling them of the loss he had suffered and the necessity there was for him to earn his living, and asking them to beg their fathers to use their interest to procure him a situation as a boy clerk, or any other position in which he could earn his livelihood.
Frank, however, shrunk from making any such appeal, and determined to fight his battle without asking for help.

He knew nothing of his parents' relations.

His father was an only son, who had been left early an orphan.

His mother, too, had, he was aware, lost both her parents, and he had never heard her speak of other relations.

There was no one, therefore, so far as he knew, to whom he could appeal on the ground of ties of blood.