“Well, Ben, you know where the office of the Western Union is; come around there to-morrow morning, at eight o’clock, and I will give you something to do.”
“Oh, I’m very thankful to you, sir, and this will make my mother the happiest woman in Damietta.”
I saw tears in the bright eyes, as Ben ran home to carry the good news to his mother.
CHAPTER III
THE OFFICE BOY
When I approached the office the next morning, little Ben Mayberry was standing outside, smiling and expectant.
My heart was touched when I saw what pains his mother had taken to put her boy in presentable shape. He had on a pair of coarse shoes, carefully blacked, and a new, cheap hat replaced the dilapidated one of the day before. He wore a short coat and a vest, which must have served him as his Sunday suit for a long time, as they were much too small for him.
But there was a cleanly, neat look about him which attracted me at once. His face was as rosy as an apple, and his large, white teeth were as sound as new silver dollars. His dark hair, which was inclined to be curly, was cut short, and the ill-fitting clothes could not conceal the symmetry of his growing figure.