Show fRed-Headed Boy From Missouri Valley By ELBERT HUBBARD i so very long ago done several since some but I I hare made gained Lad upon the The past I have and God has roe His gift of And if railroad train upon which I should suddenly transform into my last thought Bold be one of gratitude for hav-ig Arid I am going to live I have not been preparing i die I have been preparing to Twenty-one I was fore-iD of a and he lived a miles at Missouri I was twenty-four was His brother is traveling for the and p day I his brother showed me a tier from the lad in Missouri J The missive was so so and revealed the soul of the child so that I laughed aloud a laugh dying away in a The hoy was beating his wings against the bars the bars of Missouri Valley he wanted And all he got was unending dead stupid misunderstanding and Hard Shell on There wasn't Jove enough in Missouri Valley to go was The boy's mother had been of the Nancy hanks type yellow and sad and bad given up the fight and been laid to rest in a prairie grave on one of the many The father's ambition had got stuck in the and under the tongue-lash of a strenuous gee-haw he had run up the white Nobody loved the boy but and Jesus was an awful from Missouri Jesus was the but this boy was nobody was-God never had but one and no daughters and this world was a vast orphan The boy wanted to come It was a dubious investment a sort of financial a blind pool to send for this buckwheat The fare was thirty-three dollars and fifty The a cautious said that the boy wasn't worth the There were plenty of boys the alleys swarmed with So there the matter But the lad in Missouri Valley didn't let it rest He had been informed that we did not consider him worth so he offered to split the He would come for half he could ride on half fare the Railroad Agent at Missouri Valley said that if he bought a half fare got on the and explained to the conductor and everybody he was on and stuck to it would be all and he would not expect any wages until he had paid us 3 He had no money of his all he earned was taken from him by the kind folks with whom he and would be until noon of the day he was twenty-ono years Did we want to invest in We waxed reckless and sent the money more than wo sent a twenty dollar In just a week the investment He did not advise when ho would come or He we ho should he advise of his He just and his first words were the duke's I am He was unnecessarily freckled and curiously His legs had the Greek curve from much horseback herding on the his hair was the color of a Tamworth his hands were bis wrists bony and He carried his shoes in his so as not to wear out the or because they aggravated sundry stone-bruises I don't know am said the and he planked down on the desk three dollars and twenty-five was the change from the twenty dollar you have to spend any money on the way here V I I had all I wanted to he and pointed to a basket that sat on the I called in the and we looked the lad We walked around him gazed at each and adjourned to the hallway for The boy wasn't big enough to do a man's and if we set him to work in the factory with the city they would surely pick on him and make life for him very lie had a half-sad and winsome look that had won from our hard hearts something akin to He was so so full of and we saw at a glance that he had been at least and He was different from other boys and in spite of the grime of travel and the he was pretty as a ground His faith made him he won But why had we brought him to the miserable and dirty city this grim place of disillusionment might index the I let him index the So I went back and got But the boy's head only came to the top of the stand-up and when he reached for the letter-book on the desk he had grope for I gave him my high hut this was too know what to he Through the window that looked from the office to the shipping he had spied a pile of know what In a minute he had placed two boxes end to nailed them clinched the nails and carried his improvised high-stool into the know what to And he usually and does AVe found him a hoarding place with a worthy widow whose children had all grown big and Her house was empty and so was her she was like that old woman in who was placed on the surgeon's table and given and who held to her breast an imaginary child and crooned a lullaby to a dead thiry years So the boy boarded with the widow and worked in the He indexed the letter-book he indexed And then he filed everything He stamped the letters going swept the office and dusted things that had never been dusted He was and the proprietor said to me one wonder how we ever got along without that boy from Missouri Six months had and there came a day when one of the workman intimated to the proprietor that he better look out for that red-headed office the proprietor insisted on hearing the and the man then explained that almost every night the boy came hack to the He had seen him the boy had a tin box and letter-books in and papers and Lord knows what him The proprietor advised with me because I was least he though I and I agreed with He thought was at the bottom of was our chief had hired away two of our and we had gotten three of we called him In derision Jahe had gotten into the factory twice on pretence of seeing a man who wanted to join the Epworth League or had ordered him because we knew he was frying to steal our Jabe was a rogue that was than Jabe was a The proprietor was a Baptist and regarded all Methodists with a pre-natal aversion that swung between fear and The mere thought of Jabe gave us was the bugaboo that haunted our Our chief worry was that we would never be able to save-our Bank Balance for fear Jabe has hired our office boy to give him a list of our customers he is stealing our I said the cub's pretence of wanting a key to the factory so he could sweep out early was really that he-might get m Next day we watched the office He surely looked guilty his freckles stood out like sun- spots and he was more bow-legged than The workman who had given the on being further gated was sure he had seen Jabe go by the factory twice in one That settled At eight o'clock that night we went down to the It was a full and in an part of the There was a dim light in the We peered through the and sure there was the boy hard at work There were several books a tin box and some We waited and watched him copy something into a We withdrew and To confront the culprit then and there seemed the proper We unlocked the door and walked softly The boy was startled by our approach and still more by our When the proprietor demanded the letter that he had just written he began to and then we knew we had The proprietor took the letter and read It was to Jimmy Smith in Missouri It told all about how the writer was get-am m A AAA A AAA ting about the and it told and the But we were not to ho We and 7 with news letters to ms and Then we dived the bottom of the tin search of things contraband u i we found was a and m trinkets m way of lace bon that had once been th erty of the dead Nancy Then we questioned the offend i er at The boy averred that he came to the office evenings only because he wanted to urite letters and get his He would not think of writ-ing his personal letters on out and the only reason he wanted to write at the office instead o I at was so he could use the He wanted to copy all of his letters one should be business-like in all things The proprietor coughed and warned the boy never to let it hp-pen We started for walking silently but very The silence was only once brok- a a a a a a fm m m m m m eh when the proprietor If I ever find him around our factory I'll tweak his that's what I will Twenty-one years That factory has grown to be the biggest of its kind in That red-haired boy from Missouri Valley is its There is always one you just one and no Every great success traces back to one man the world may know him or and the concern may acknowledge him or it makes no he is The Missouri Valley gets thousand a they It is none too Masterly men are rare Schwab says he has vacancies for with salaries no object if they can do the That business grew because the boy from Missouri Valley grew with and he grew because the business is a free paraphrase from who said that Horace Walpole age because he was influenced by his has gone on his Long discouraged and whipped by an unappreciative If he had had the gumption to discover a red-haired boy from Misson Valley he might now be an automobile on Delaware Avenue instead pf being in Abraham's We shall all be in Abraham's Bosom day after and then I'll explain to that no man ever succeeded in a masterly excepting as he got other folks to do his Blessed is that man who has found somebody to do his To win get a hold and hang on inertia is as good as Ther is plenty of iron but the proprietor and I know Pay Gravel when we see |