The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1872-10-18
.Afrs. Gray, will you lend me ten

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small face gazing up into hers, with its
childish faith and its childish beauty;
saw two large blue eyes, with the tears
half Quivering in them already, as If the
Sensitive child expected a refusal.
Something, a fleeting recollection may
be, or q wandering tender thought, fioat-
ing about like thistledown, seeking
some place TO rest upon, touched Mrs.
Gray's heart at the moment; she re-
memSered the strange feeling long af-
terward, and she patted little Ben's
bright hair as she gave him the money,
and she said he was a good child.
Then little Ben went to the newspaper
office to wait for the five o'clock edition.
1t would have Jared badly with him,
though only for Pat Hagans; for the
young ruffians Of newsboys, seeing he
was a new boy and a green one, fell
upon the poor child and began to beat
and cuff him savagely. But another
wandering thought, like thistledown,
must have touched and rested upon the
heart of Pat Hagans at that moment
/ for Just as big bad boy struck poor Ben
and made him cry, burly Pat Hagans
roared out:
HStop that! Yer dussent lick boy OF
yer size, nohOwW
I TIOul llltl AlLiC DlH Lit IAdEtAllS " 80
the champion of little Ben. He edu-
Gated him to be a newsboy, as l told
you. - ....L.
That very first night Pats "baby''
sold every one of his papers. And that
night little Ben and his mother had
some supper, though Ben wondered
what made his mother cry again as they
sat down to eat, and hold him so tight
in her arms and kiss him again and
again. Ben thought it was a little un-
reasonable in a woman to cry when she
! had plenty of bread and milk.
Maybe the angels had brought little
Ben and his mother their supper after
ALL
But Pat Hagans was the only angel
directly visible in the case, and he was
rather dirty looking angel, chewing
tobacco, and smoking a stump pipe, as
he did. And Pm positively certain that
nobody would have let him into q Sun
day school tableau as an angel. Never
theless, for all his patched trowsers and
toes sticking out of his boots, he was a
protecting spirit to little Ben. He was
so little, so helpless and harmless, that
by and by a spirit of pity and gentleness
toward him began TO develop itself even
among the merciless outcast newsboys.
They came to be so kind and chivalrous
towards him that not a boy of them
would 90 near little Ben's beat, not a
boy of them would take customer from
him. | am glad to write that Of them.
They were glad to remember il too, after
that happened which did happen.
For some months that weak little boy
earned supper for himself and his
mother. People were kind TO him
mostly. Ladies and gentlemen bought
papers of the pretty gOlden-haired child,
even when they did not want them.
Cab drivers often Stacked up little
when they saw him coming so that
he might climb on safely, and even the
big policeman used to watch him care
fully across the street. Little Ben
learned more of the big world than he
ever thought was to be known; more
than was good for child to know per.
! haps. He used to look at the fine ear.
riages and wonder whether he evel
could sell papers enough to buy a car.
riage. He wondered what he would dc
when he was a man. He would not bC
a newspaper editor, because editors were
ALWAYS so cross and i'm such a hurry
Maybe he would be a street car driver
He liked that better Or maybe hC
would even have to go and be a legisla-
be gaped at. He would not like that al
all. On the whole, he thought he would
be milkman, he told his mother, be-
cause a milkman could ride all day I'm a
wagon, and seemed TO get more money
than anybody else. And little Ben
learned some bad words and rough ways
from the other boys, too. But he never
said the bad words before his mother
never. And he always gave her every
penny of his little earnings, not even
keeping enough TO buy a pocket knife
! with two blades, though he wanted il
more than anything else in the world
At last terrible thing happened. ]
hardly known how to write il down, fol
when / 60 to write of that my hand
shakes and the tears come in spite OF
me, and somehow / seem to be writing
OF one who was of very near kin to me
One afternoon little Ben went out
merrily to sell his papers, his slender
delicate hands and pale face very clean
and his long, bright curls shining in the
! sun. His mother watched him out O
sight from her window, Just as always
That was the last time She ever curieC
little Ben's long bright hair, the las
time she was ever to watch her darling
from the window. Poor little Ben!
he had sold three papers, and the lit.
tie fellow climbed into street car, and
sold another. He meant TO step of al
the crossing, but the child was very lit
tie, very weak, and missed his footing,
and fell under the ear. In an instant
the heavy-wheeled car rolled over him,
They stopped the car, and picked up the
small crushed body in a moment. 4
little feeble, trembling life yet quivered
within him, and he opened his blue
eyes family, and begged them piteously
TO send for his mother They knew the
child, and went instantly. But the
faint tiny spark of life glimmered feebly
and went out quietly before the stricken
mother came. And with the cold hand
of death stifiening his white eyelids
and dimming his great blue eyes, LITTLE
hero Ben murmured with his last veal
breath, the words mingling brokenly
with the death gasp:
'Tell my mother-Tve sold four pa
pers-and the mOney-is in-my
! pocket. GOd-will-care-for
y crowd of men and women, most o
them with tears in their eyes, saw tn,
long bright curls, all draggled anc
dusty, two poor slim hands, broken a
the wrist, one of them hanging dead ane
! lifeless-a heart-brOken woman moan
ing and crying, and claspipp wildly /,
her breast the crushed. snaneless thin,
which had been ,.ol5or- -boired lItti