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A NEWSBOY'S GRATITUDE

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 2, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 27.

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A NEWSBOY'S GRATITUDE.

A WRITER in the New York Recorder tells the story of a newsboy who, months after he had eaten a Christmas supper, insisted on paying the kind journalist who provided it. On Christmas night an old-time newspaper writer stepped into a cheap restaurant in Park Row for a cup of hot coffee. As he took his seat at one of the small tables, a ragged little boy planted himself on the stool opposite. There was a wolfish glare in the boy’s eyes as he fumbled a nickel, and said, “A plate of beans.”
I sipped my coffee and watched the boy ravenously devour the beans. Whispering to the waiter, I told him to bring a plate of corned beef, some bread and butter, and a bowl of coffee, for the boy.
The little fellow stared for a moment, and began his meal. In a few minutes the beef, bread, and coffee had disappeared, yet the boy’s appetite was not satisfied.
“What kind of pie do you like?” I asked.
“Most any kind; they’s all good,” replied the boy.
“Bring him some mince and pumpkin pie,” I said to the waiter.
The boy gazed at the two pieces of pie in wonderment, and then looked up shyly, and pushed his nickel toward me.
“What’s that for?” I asked.
“To pay for the spread. It’s all I’ve got.”
Taking a quarter from my pocket, I laid it on the boy’s coin, and pushed them across the table.
“Is them for me?” said the boy, with his mouth full of pie. “Am I to have all that?”
“Yes, this is Christmas night, you know.”
“Yes, I remember; but I had no money for my lodging, so I didn’t get any of the dinner down at the newsboys’ lodging-house. Thank you, mister; you is good ter me.”
Months passed. One day a boy stopped me near Brooklyn Bridge. “Say, mister,” he said, “I owe you a quarter. Here it is.”
Recognizing my Christmas guest, I gently refused the money, telling him that he had better keep it.
“No, you take it,” he persisted. “That supper and the quarter you gave me brought me luck, and I have not been so hungry since. You was so good that night, and I want you to take the quarter now, so that you can give some other boy a Christmas supper.”
I took the coin, and many a poor newsboy has had a good dinner with it since.