Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1871-05-26

4 =
Ben was very pretty child, with his slen-
der bands and long, golden curls.
| How was it2 Did not his mother care
for her child? Aye, she did; for he was
the only comfort she had in the world.
Her only comfort and her only child. Lit
| tie Ben had a father, but he might better
have had no fathor This father was poor
| pitiful wreck of humanity, fallen so low
that think scarcely the angels of heaven
| could have reached him In the depth Of
degradation to which he had sunk am
sure nobody except an angel could have
reached him away down In the pool of
slime and nth which was ali over him.
For no beast is 50 beastly as human
| beast.
| Time was when this weak, bad man had
been well to do in the world, and respecta-
bic, and had friends. But 1t must have
been always in him TO be weak and bad or
he would not have fallen so easily when
temptation came. An old tradition which
! tells how the angels fell from Paradise, says
n chat the thread which drew them into evil
twas at first as thin as cobweb, but they
| did not resist it, and il grew strong as n
cable" So with little Ben's father. lie
did not resist the cob-web at irst, and now
the cable bound him hand and foot, and
left him no power, nor even the wish, ever
TO rise again in this world. With the IA
ther of little Ben we have nothing more TO
do.
Time had been when his gentle mother,
with slender hands and yellow curling
haip n I,,.,
house and had a carriage 10 ride in. Time
had been when she had such happy home
that she had nothing left on earth to wish
| for. But that time was so long gone by
now that Bens mother, in her great troub-
lie and despair, looked forward to no hap
piness and no beautiful home till she
should pass over the river and enter the
gate of the celestial city. Indeed, so heavy
was her trouble, that she sometimes lost
sight of even that one last hope.
The days of plenty and happiness were
so long gone by for Ben and his mother
that one night they had no supper. And
the next night it was just the same, and the
ncxt-and after that little Ben often went
hungry to bed. One day, watching his
mother with his large, wistful blue eyes,
he saw that her work had fallen from her
hands, and that she was crying, At first
Ben cried too, because he did not know
what else to do; laying his bright little
head on her shoulder, and clasping his
weak arms tight about her neck, as if,
poor child, that could do any good. Pres
emily he said: -
"Mamma, what are you crying for?"
Then his mother told him that she had
no supper for him, and no breakfast either,
and did not know where to get any more
break fast or supper.
"Maybe the angels will bring us some,"
said poor little Ben.
"There are 10 angels any more, Benny"
said his mother.
After that little Ben stood by her side a
long time, very silent, very quiet, (he was
always quiet boy,) trying to get it through
his childish head that there were truly no
more angels, with their white dresses and
shining wings, such as he had seen in a
picture his mother used to have. The an
gels all looked like his mother, somehow, it
seemed to him, and she would make a
beautiful angel herself, if she only had
|
ssppcr awfully, and some supper for man.
ma, too, the child thought.
BY and by, after thinking while longer
Ben went quietly out doors and into the
streets, stole so softly out the back way
that his mother did not see him at all. He
went to the lady who lived next door and
said:
"Mrs. Gray, will you lend me ten cents?"
The lady, hearing the timid trembling
voice beside her, looked down and saw II
small face gazing up into hers, with its
childish faith, and its childish beauty /;
saw two large blue eyes, with the tears
half quverng in them already, az if the
sensitive child expected refusal. Some
thing, a fleeting recollection, maybe, or q
wandering tender thought floating about
like thistle down, seeking place to rest
upon, touched Mrs. Gray's heart at the mo-
ment; she remembered the strange feeling
long aiterward, and she patted little Ben's
bright hair as she gave him the money and
said he was Il good child.
Then little Ben went to the newspaper
office to wait for the 8 o'clock edition. 1t
would have Jared badly with him them
though, only for Pat Hagans, Tor the young
ruilians Of newsboys, seeing he was new
boy and n green one, fell upon the poor
child and began to beat and cuff him saw
agely. But another wandering tender
thought, floating about like thistle down,
must have touched and rested upon the
heart of Pat Hagans at that moment For
just as big, bad boy had struck poor Ben
and made him cry, burly Pat Hagans
roared out:
"Dry that up, rot yer Yer dassent lick
a boy of yer size, nohow?"
From that time Pat Hagans was the
champion of little Ben. lie educated him
1 to be a newsboy, as told you taught him
how to make change, how to Jaw back"
when the boys ''sassed' him, and also how
to "slidc of on his ear" at proper times,
too.
That very first night Pats "baby" sold
every one of his papers. And that night
little Ben and his mother had some supper;
though he wondered what made his mother
cry again, as they sat down to eat, and hold
him so tight in her arms, and kiss him a.
gain and again. He thought 1t was little
unreasonable in a woman to cry, when she
had plenty of bread and milk.
May be the angels had brought little Ben
and his mother their suppers after all.
But Patsey Hagans was the only angel
directly visible in the case, and am doubt
full he was rather dirty lookingangel, chew.
ing tobacco, and smoking a stump pipe as
he did. And I'm positively certain nobody
would have let him into a Sunday school