Mike and Robert's comic-book library is the first business the boys build for themselves, transforming the comic books discarded by the convenience store into a neighborhood reading room. Its brief operation turns unpaid labor into an income-producing venture and teaches them to notice value where others see waste; its closure after a fight ends the business, but not the lesson it was meant to teach.

From Unpaid Work to an Opportunity

After weeks of thinking, talking, and working without pay, Robert again watches the comic-book stand as he says goodbye to Mrs. Martin. The absence of even thirty cents each Saturday has left him unable to buy comics. Then a familiar action suddenly registers: Mrs. Martin cuts the front page off each comic, keeps the top half of the cover, and throws the rest into a large brown cardboard box. When Robert asks, she explains that the cover is returned to the distributor for credit when he brings new comics. The discarded books, previously just unwanted leftovers, now look to Robert like the basis of a business.

Robert and Mike wait an hour for the distributor and ask for the comics. He agrees on one condition: they may have them if they work for the store and do not resell them. The boys revive their partnership by finding a use that respects that restriction. Rather than sell the books, they charge children to read them on the premises, making access—not ownership—the source of income.

How the Library Operates

Mike's mother has an unused spare room in the basement. The boys clean it out and stack hundreds of comics there, creating a library open to neighborhood children every day after school from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. They hire Mike's younger sister, who loves to study, as head librarian. Admission costs ten cents, the price of a single comic, but children can read as many as they manage in two hours—often five or six—making the visit a bargain.

Mike's sister checks children as they leave to make sure no one takes books away. She also maintains the books, recording how many children come each day, who they are, and any comments they offer. Over three months, the library averages $9.50 a week. The boys pay her one dollar weekly and let her read the comics for free, although she rarely does because she is always studying. The business depends on a simple arrangement: the boys collect comics from different stores each Saturday, honor the distributor's no-resale condition, and use a small paid staff member to keep the room running.

Limits and Closure

The boys try to open a branch, but cannot find anyone as dedicated as Mike's sister whom they can trust. Their difficulty finding reliable staff gives them an early experience of the practical limits of expansion: replicating the room is not enough if they cannot replicate its dependable management.

Three months after the library opens, bullies from another neighborhood push their way into the room and start a fight. Mike's father recommends shutting down the business, and the comic-book library closes. The boys also stop working Saturdays at the convenience store. The ending is not a failure of the original idea so much as a response to a concrete disruption: the room is no longer a workable place to operate after the fight.

What the Business Teaches

The library's importance lies in the change from earning wages to creating a business. The boys had worked at the store without pay; that constraint forced them to use their imaginations to identify an opportunity rather than depend on an employer for money. Their income comes from organizing access to comics that would otherwise be thrown away, and they retain control of their finances through their own venture.

The business also generates money when Robert and Mike are not physically present. It therefore embodies the lesson that money can work for its owners: the boys' effort establishes a system that continues to earn, rather than paying them only for hours worked. Mike's father is pleased that they have learned this lesson so well and, instead of paying them wages, has given them a more consequential experience. The library's short life thus has a lasting narrative function: it makes an abstract principle tangible through a cardboard box of discarded comics, a basement room, a ten-cent admission fee, and a business that succeeds before circumstance brings it to a close.