Year: 1871

mother. PeOple were kind to hin
mostly. Ladies and gentlemen
bought papers Of the pretty gold
en-haired child, even when they
did not want them. Car drivers
often Stacked up a little when they
saw him coming, so that be might
climb oD 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 a child to
know, perhaps. He used to- look
at the fine carriages and wonder
whether he could ever sell papers
enough to buy carriage. He
wondered what be would do when
he was a man. He would not be
| a newspaper editor, he thought,
because editors were always SO
cross, andin such a hurry. May
be he would be u street car driver.
He liked that better. Or maybe
would even have to 60 and be a
Legislator, and have to be hauled
about in hack and have to be
gaped at. He would not like that
at all. On the whole, he thought
he would be milkman, he told
his mother, because q milkman
could ride all day in a wagon, and
seem 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 it more than anything
else in the world.


At last a terrible thing hap
pened. | hardly know how to
write it down, for when | go to
write Of that, my hand shakes and
| the tears come in spite of me, and
somehow I seem to be writing of
one who was q 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 Of
sight from her window, just as
always. That was the last time
she ever curled little Ben's long
bright hair; the last time she was
ever to watch her darling from
the window. Poor little Ben! <


He had sold & three papers,
and the little fellow climbed into
a street car and sold another
He meant to step off at the cross
ing, but the child was very little,
very weak, and missed his foot
ing, and fell under the car. In
an instant the heavy wheel rolled
over him, They stopped the car
and picked up the small crushed
body in moment "A little fee
BILE, 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 quietly out before the strick-
en- mother came. And with the
cold hand of death, siiffening his
white eyelids, and dimming his
great blue eyes, little hero Ben
murmured with his last weak
breath, the words mingling bro
kenly with the death gasps;--


"Tellmy mother--lve sold four
papers-and--the money--is IN
my pocket" a


A crowd of men and women,
most of them with tears in their
eyes, saw the long, bright curls,
all draggled and dusty, two poor
little slim hands broken at the
wrist, one of them hanging quite
dead and ifeless--a heart-broken
woman, moaning and crying, and
clasping wildly to her breast the.
crushed, shapeless thing which
had been golden haired little Ben !!
1t was Madame de Stael who
remarked Of a conceited acquaint-
ance "Whenever | see him, | feel