Part 18 (1/2)

”G.o.d bless you!” uttered the man, seizing the coin.

”What'll you have?” asked the barkeeper.

”Anything the money will buy.”

A gla.s.s of lager was placed in his hands and eagerly quaffed. Then he went up to the table and ate almost ravenously, Julius bearing him company.

”G.o.d bless you, boy!” he said. ”May you never know what it is to be hungry and without a penny in your pocket!”

”I've knowed it more'n once,” said Julius.

”Have you--already? Poor boy! What do you do for a living?”

”Sometimes one thing--sometimes another,” said Julius. ”I'm blackin'

boots now.”

”So I am relieved by the charity of a bootblack,” murmured the other, thoughtfully. ”The boy has a heart.”

”Can't you get nothin' to do?” asked Julius, out of curiosity.

”Yes, yes, enough to do, but no money,” said the other.

”Look here,” said the barkeeper, ”don't you eat all there is on the table. That won't pay on a five-cent drink--that won't.”

He had some cause for speaking, for the man, who was almost famished, had already eaten heartily. He desisted as he heard these words, and turned to go out.

”I feel better,” he said. ”I was very weak when I came in. Thank you, my boy,” and he offered his hand to Julius, which the latter took readily.

”It ain't nothin',” he said, modestly.

”To me it is a great deal. I hope we shall meet again.”

Street boy as he was, Julius had found some one more dest.i.tute than himself, and out of his own poverty he had relieved the pressing need of another. It made him feel lighter-hearted than usual. It was the consciousness of having done a good action, which generally brings its own reward, however trifling it may have been.

Though himself uneducated, he noticed that the man whom he had relieved used better language than was common among those with whom he was accustomed to a.s.sociate, and he wondered how such a man should have become so poor.

”I don't want to see that man again,” said the barkeeper. ”He spends five cents and eats twenty cents' worth. If all my customers were like that, I should soon have to stop business. Do you know him?”

”Never seed him afore,” said Julius.

He shouldered his box and ascended the steps to the sidewalk above. He resolved to look out for business for the next two hours, and then go around to the necktie stand of Paul Hoffman.

CHAPTER XII.

A GOOD ACTION MEETS ITS REWARD.

Paul Hoffman was standing beside his stock in trade, when all at once he heard the question, so common in that neighborhood, ”s.h.i.+ne yer boots?”