The president was about to board a street-car for home one evening,
when a dozen newsboys came running towards him, calling him to “come
here.”
“Bundle found fifty-six dollars,” was heard from a bunch of sellers.
The president, of course had to return to his office.
Bundle was a little round, red-faced boy, who always wore a large scarf
around his neck, and in most any kind of weather. The sellers were not
surprised at any of their number finding money but, said a bootblack:
“What’s going to happen when slow-pokey Bundle finds something?” But he
did, and at the enterance of one of the largest buildings in the city.
“There it was,” said Bundle, “all wide open before my eyes, I stumbled
over it and the money scattered. Didn’t it Sam?”
There was nothing in the roll to indicate its owner. Some one
accustomed to carrying money in his vest pocket had lost it. As soon as
Bundle picked it up, he called to the boys across the street and on
the corners. A dozen boys answered him, and they all marched towards
the president’s office. Each boy had something to say.
“Say, pres., we come near losing you, didn’t we?” said Bundle, “but
if you did go home I would have stayed up all night holding the dough
until you come to your office.”
Bundle was rewarded, his companions were as delighted as he was. A
happier lot of boys never walked the streets than these sellers.
The next morning, Bundle, with five other boys came into the office,
their faces were long; Bundle looked sad.
“Bundle got a licking,” said one of the boys looking sympathetically at
Bundle. The president looked surprised.
“Got a licking, and what for?”
“His mother licked him because he brought the money to you. She said it
belonged to her and she could spend it as she liked.”
It was a fact that Bundle was severely punished.
“All the boys on the street saw me get a whipping,” said Bundle, “and I
don’t like it.”
The boys were assured that all would come out right in the end. “You
just wait until we hear from the advertisement we put in the papers,”
said the president.
[Illustration: “FIRE-TOP.”
_See Page 117_
]
The boys were soon playing upon the street.
A prominent clothier saw the notice of the boy finding the money and
his desire to seek the owner. He wrote the president: “If you will send
that honest boy to me I will present him with the best suit of clothes
in my store.”
The mother accompanied Bundle to the store and not only did he receive
a new suit of clothes but an overcoat as well.
Within forty-eight hours after the find was advertised the rightful
owner appeared, received the money, and presented the boy with a five
dollar bill and a good watch.
“Keep this watch to remind you that if you will follow up your honest
beginning, you will not only be a rich man, but a good one.”
The object of relating this incident is the sequel.
The big head-line compliments in the newspapers; the many little
presents and congratulations Bundle received had a surprising effect
upon his mother. She was proud of being the boy’s mother. Her sons and
daughters posed on the corners and pointed with pride to their brother.
Not only did this act have a good effect on the boy and the family,
but upon the entire street, as the remark is often heard, “this is the
street that has the honest newsboy.”