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“Give me a ride?”

Ben Barclay checked the horse he was driving and looked attentively at the speaker. He was a stout-built, dark-complexioned man, with a beard of a week’s growth, wearing an old and dirty suit, which would have reduced any tailor to despair if taken to him for cleaning and repairs. A loose hat, with a torn crown, surmounted a singularly ill-favored visage.

“A tramp, and a hard-looking one!” said Ben to himself.

He hesitated about answering, being naturally reluctant to have such a traveling companion.

“Well, what do you say?” demanded the tramp rather impatiently. “There’s plenty of room on that seat, and I’m dead tired.”
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On first read, I found this opening to be excellent. It gets us immediately into a POV character's head, it starts with an inciting event, and it gives description without exposition. Had I not been in class, I would have definitely kept reading.

Interestingly, when I had to type it out just now, I realized that Alger makes some technical mistakes. For example, in the second paragraph, "He was..." is preceded by two possible subjects to which the pronoun 'he' might be referring - Ben and the speaker. Another example is that if the tramp is 'demanding', then 'impatiently' is probably redundant.

However I didn't notice things like that at all on first read, because the opening was simple yet compelling. So, I thought I would share it.