on this. There was considerable
talking and some bargaining and finally Dick was given a stand in the
banking district. This was due to Dick's classmate also. The latter
realized that a boy of Dick's appearance would do better there than
anywhere.

So one morning Dick rose early and I staked him to a dollar and he
started off in high spirits. He didn't have any of the false pride
about the work that at first I myself had felt. He was on my mind
pretty much all that day and I came home curious and a little bit
anxious to learn the result. He had been back after the morning
editions. Ruth reported he had sold fifty papers and had returned
more eager than ever. She said he wouldn't probably be home until
after seven. He wanted to catch the crowds on their way to the
station.

I suggested to Ruth that we wait dinner for him and go on up town and
watch him. She hesitated at this, fearing the boy wouldn't like it and
perhaps not over anxious herself to see him on such a job. But as I
said, if the boy wasn't ashamed I didn't think we ought to be. So she
put on her things and we started.

We found him by the entrance to one of the big buildings with his
papers in a strap thrown over his shoulder. He had one paper in his
hand and was offering it, perhaps a bit shyly, to each passer-by with
a quiet, "Paper, sir?" We watched him a moment and Ruth kept a tight
grip on my arm.

"Well," I said, "what do you think of him?"

"Billy," she said with a little tremble in her voice, "I'm proud of
him."

"He'll do," I said.

Then I said:

"Wait here a moment."

I took a nickel from my pocket and hurried towards him as though I
were one of the crowd hustling for the train. I stopped in front of
him and he handed me a paper without looking up. He began to make
change and it wasn't until he handed me back my three coppers that he
saw who I was. Then he grinned.

"Hello, Dad," he said.

Then he asked quickly,

"Where's mother?"

But Ruth couldn't wait any longer and she came hurrying up and placed
her hand underneath the papers to see if they were too heavy for him.

Dick earned three dollars that first week and he never fell below this
during the summer. Sometimes he went as high as five and when it came
time for him to go to school again he had about seventy-five regular
customers. He had been kept out of doors between six and seven hours a
day. The contact with a new type of boy and even the contact with the
brisk busine