The University Courier.
111
There is something the matter, and I don't know what to do."
"What is it my boy? Can't I help you?"
"Yes" said Dick, "you can; but I hate to ask you. It's this. The old woman is sick. She has been ailing for a good while, and when I went home last night, she was down in bed and couldn't get up. She hardly knew me, when I came in. I don't know what I'm going to do, if she don't get better, for I am afraid that she is going to die. Now Doctor, what I want is this. Iaint got no money; but I want you to come around, and see if you can't fix her up. Then I'll work as hard as I know how, and as soon as I get the money, I'll pay you anything you ask, for I wouldn't lose mother for anything. She's all the friend I've got in the world."
The doctor listened quietly, and when the boy was through, he put his big hand on the curly head, and told him that of course he would go and see his mother; but that he wouldn't ask anything for it.
Dick stepped back and said proudly that he wasn't going to beg of anybody, and that the doctor needn't come at all, if he wouldn't take anything for his services;—that he and his mother didn't have to go to the poor-house yet, by a long ways.
The big man laughed, and said that it could be fixed up afterwards all right, and that they had better go and see his new patient, as she might need something immediately.
For days and days the doctor visited his patient constantly, and for days and days she hung between life and death. During this time, Dick was very rarely seen at the pier, only running down now and then to make a dime or so, and then going back home.
At last his mother got better, and one day when he came home, she was sitting up in bed. From that time Dick came to the boats with a happy look in his face, and would tell everyone that "the old woman's getting all O. K. again." He worked harder than he ever did before, and when one of the men of the wharf asked him why he never went in swimming with the other boys any more, he said that he was saving up
to pay the doctor the ten dollars, which he owed him for attending his mother,and didn't have time to do any swimming.
One day late in the Fall, when there was a big crowd at the pier, waiting for the incoming boat, the doctor came down with his little daughter of four years. Dick was at his regular station, and when he saw the doctor, his eye lighted up, and he exchanged a nod with his benefactor.
The boat was steaming slowly up to the pier, and was only a short distance away. All at once a great cry went up from the crowd, and Dick turned just in time to see the doctor's little girl fall off the pier into the deep blue water under them. The crowd surged back and forth and was wild with excitement. The boat was drawing nearer. Dick pushed through the throng, and shot head first down into the water. A deep hush fell over the people, and they watched for the reappearance of the boy with breathless interest. The seconds seemed minutes. The big boat swung slowly up into place, almost directly over the place where the boy had disappeared. The big wheel of the steamer was stopping slowly, and as it came to a halt, the yellow hair of the girl came out of the water, followed by the brown hand of the street gamin. As he came up out of the water, the people saw a deep gash on the side of his head, from which the blood was slowly running, staining the water a dark crimson. He swam with difficulty, and was about to sink again, when willing hands reached him, and he was lifted out of the water, with his burden in his arms, onto the steamer's deck. When they laid him down, he had fainted dead away, and it was then that the awful blow of the steamer's wheel was clearly seen.
The little girl was lifted from his arms, and borne away to her father. As he took her in his arms, she opened her eyes, and looked around wonderingly.
A physician was by Dick's side, bathing his awful cut. He came to himself slowly, after a short time, and looked wildly around him. The he seemed to comprehend what had happened. One of his boy comrades was by his