BELRON, A dying mare is left as surety against a debt no one comes back to pay. The stable master does the arithmetic. The boy does the raising. Neither of them counts the cost the same way.

NINE HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE, A boy graduates from one kind of gutter to another, handed a job the last man died doing. His only friend teaches him to sift the filth, to keep his head down, and to lie about what he finds. He thinks he's risen.

WHAT THE SPARROWS TAUGHT HIM, A boy who watches for the crown learns that the woman who feeds the city's orphans keeps the best of everything for herself. One night he goes to see if it's true. It is.