aily papers: A boy of seven is prepared to wash
and iron for responsible parties. Address Bennie Walton, No. 161-1/2
Green Street."

"Now you are laughing at me, Luke," said Bennie, pouting. "Why don't
you let me go out with you and sell papers?"

"I hope, Bennie," said Luke, gravely, "you will never have to go into
the street with papers. I know what it is, and how poor boys fare. One
night last week, at the corner of Monroe and Clark Streets, I saw a
poor little chap, no older than you, selling papers at eleven o'clock.
He had a dozen papers which he was likely to have left on his hands,
for there are not many who will buy papers at that hour."

"Did you speak to him, Luke?" asked Benny, interested.

"Yes; I told him he ought to go home. But he said that if he went home
with all those papers unsold, his stepfather would whip him. There
were tears in the poor boy's eyes as he spoke."

"What did you do, Luke?"

"I'll tell you what I did, Bennie. I thought of you, and I paid him
the cost price on his papers. It wasn't much, for they were all penny
papers, but the poor little fellow seemed so relieved."

"Did you sell them yourself, Luke?"

"I sold four of them. I went over to Madison Street, and stood in
front of McVicker's Theater just as the people were coming out. It so
happened that four persons bought papers, so I was only two cents out,
after all. You remember, mother, that was the evening I got home so
late."

"Yes, Luke, I felt worried about you. But you did right. I am always
glad to have you help those who are worse off than we are. How
terribly I should feel if Bennie had to be out late in the streets
like that!"

"There are many newsboys as young, or at any rate not much older. I
have sometimes seen gentlemen, handsomely dressed, and evidently with
plenty of money, speak roughly to these young boys. It always makes me
indignant. Why should they have so easy a time, while there are so
many who don't know where their next meal is coming from? Why, what
such a man spends for his meals in a single day would support a poor
newsboy in comfort for a week."

"My dear Luke, this is a problem that has puzzled older and wiser
heads than yours. There must always be poor people, but those who are
more fortunate ought at least to give them sympathy. It is the least
acknowledgment they can make for their own more favored lot."

"I am going out a little while this evening, mother."

"Very well, Luke. Don't b