Beadle's Pocket Library No. 74

About this issue

This issue contains "Picayune Pete; or, Nicodemus, the Dog Detective" by Charles Morris, a serialized adventure tale published by Beadle and Adams. The narrative follows Pete, a ragged fifteen-year-old orphan living in Toledo, who is fishing when a steamboat nearly collides with a canoe carrying schoolgirls. Though initially cynical and woman-hating, Pete rescues Minnie Ellis, a golden-haired pupil from Madame Lucon's Select School, after she is knocked overboard and disappears underwater. He retrieves her and swims her ashore, then departs without accepting praise. The second chapter shifts to the school, where the austere Madame Lucon reprimands all involved in the boating incident, dismissing Pete as a "low creature." Minnie, grateful and defiant, insists Pete is noble and resolves to find and thank him properly, though the text indicates she struggles to locate him.