NOTHING TO DO by Horatio Alger 

ILLUSTRATED -   The "Nothing" series of small books is an enigmatic literary complex of not less than six slim volumes of poetry. Alger can definitely take credit for only one of them - "NOTHING TO DO; A Tilt at Our Best Society" — although it is an anonymous work with no author listed. Alger produced this book before taking the decisive step towards a life-long career of writing stories for boys. Of little meaning today, the "Nothing" series was filled with thinly veiled references to events and personalities of that era. They were written at a time, when for an evening's entertainment, the family would gather in the parlor and, while one read, the others listened.

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