When I was young (about 8 or so) I read a book in my own native
language (Vietnamese). Apparently, the book was a translation from
some foreign work. I dont remember the original language, but there is
a strong probability that it was French. The rough equivalent of the
vietnamese title for the book is "No Family". I remember the following
from the book

*There was a poor peasant boy who was adopted by a travelling circus
man, whose main attractions were three dogs. The three dogs could
perform various entertaining tricks by which the old man and the boy
earned a living
*I think eventually, the old man died (maybe during a snow storm)
*And two of the three dogs also died, (i think due to wolves but not entirely sure)
*At some point the boy joined a mining community and actually got
trapped in a cave-in
*The boy meet a wealthy (possibly English) family, and was consequently adopted

Please name this book and the author

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Request for Question Clarification by politicalguru-ga on 01 Nov 2005 15:44 PST

Sounds like this Hector Melot book? 

"Heir to a fortune, the young protagonist is kidnapped by an
unscrupulous uncle who wants to put the boy out of the way and thereby
get his own mitts on the money. The villain turns the kid over to an
assassin, who hasn't the heart to murder the wide-eyed moppet. Thus,
the boy is left in the care of a happy-go-lucky travelling troubadour,
and thus begins a series of delightful misadventures."

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Clarification of Question by hnguyen-ga on 01 Nov 2005 16:58 PST

It is the right book, thanks you for your help,  politicalguru-ga and
jvk-ga. If you would post an answer, I'll be happy to declare the
question answered. And thanks for the thorough search, jvk. If you
were a researcher, I would be glad to give you a 5-star rating.

What year roughly did you read the book?

It was Hector Malot (indeed a Frenchman) who wrote "Sans famille"
("Nobody's boy", literally: "without family"). The things you remember
from the Vietnamese book correspond to the story of Malot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector_Malot
http://digilander.libero.it/mangiadischi//remi.jpg

Someone else who read the same (Vietnamese book) is Petrus Truong
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/AFIPR9I8K1ZZX/104-7595249-2485529)

Search terms:
I remembered the story by the things you mentioned so I just searched
for "sans famille"