A District Messenger Boy and a Necktie Party | Page 2

driven up just in time for its
occupants to get on the boat, Joe's employer did not come, and the boy
began to understand that, unless he made some decided move at once,
he would be carried away.
"He told me to look out for the baggage until he came; but I don't s'pose
he meant for me to go to Providence if he didn't come."
The sailors were pulling the gang-plank ashore, and Joe saw that his
time was indeed limited. Since he had been ordered to care for the
baggage until the gentleman came, he had no idea of leaving it on the
steamer, neither did he propose to make a trip to Providence.
"I'll get the things out of the room, an' then wait on the pier," he said to
himself as he ran up to the saloon where the stateroom was located.
There were a large number of passengers on the boat, and, despite all
Joe's efforts, he could not get through the crowd quickly. He struggled
and pushed, even at the risk of incurring the displeasure of those
gentlemen who were in his way, until he reached the stateroom. To get
the valises out after he was once there was but the work of a few
moments, and then he had another difficult task to reach the main deck.
When he did get there, breathless and excited, he saw that his efforts
had been in vain, for the steamer had already left the dock, and was so
far out in the stream that; unless he had been Mr. Giant-Stride of
fairy-tale fame, he could not have leaped ashore.
" Well, this is nice!" exclaimed Joe, as he stood with a valise in each
hand, looking at the dock, on which he fancied he could see the man
who had been the cause of his involuntary voyage. "Now, what'll I do?"
He stood looking about him in doubt and perplexity, uncertain whether
to go to the captain of the boat, and demand that he be landed at once,
or to explain the situation to some of the passengers, in the vain hope
that they might be able to aid him, when he heard the sound of sobs
close 'beside him.

" Hello! did you get carried away, too?" he asked, as he saw a boy, not
more than eight or nine years old, crying bitterly. "Come here, sonny,
an' tell me. what the matter is, for it looks as' if you an' I were in the
same scrape:"
"They're takin' me away from mamma an' papa, an' I'll just jump
overboard," was sonny's answer.
"Oh, don't get like that," said Joe, soothingly,as he placed the valises
carefully in one corner, and took the child by the hand to reassure him.
"They ar'n't to blame, 'cause they told everybody to go on shore' that
wanted to, an' we didn't go."
" I couldn't," sobbed the boy, "he held me, an' when I cried he struck
me in the face."
"Who did?"
"The man that made me come here with him. Mamma let me go out in
the street to play if I wouldn't go away from the block; but that man
came up an' asked me if I did not want a real live pony, an' I did, an' I
went with him to get it"
"An' you forgot what you promised your mother," said Joe, sagely.
" Yes, 'cause he said it was only a little ways off; but when we'd walked
two blocks, I wanted to go home, 'and he told me he'd cut my throat
wide open if I said anything; and then we come here."
"Why, he's up an' stole you, that's what he's done," said Joe, as, with his
hands deep in his pockets, he stood contemplating the boy, whose
trouble was so much greater than his.
"Oh, dear!" wailed the child, as he hid his head in the corner, and gave
way to his grief. "I'm goin' right straight home, an' I won't stay here."
Joe was touched by the boy's distress; he forgot his own troubles,
which .were light as compared to the little fellow's, and did his best to
comfort him.
"Now, see' here,-what's your name, though?"
"Ned."
" Well, Ned, you couldn't get home now, so you'd better stop crying,
an' we'll see if we can't fix it in some way. Where's the man?"
" He went down-stairs when the boat started, an' he told me he'd beat
me black an' blue if I spoke to anybody while he was gone."
"An' prob'ly he would," said Joe. "If he dared to reg'larly steal you he'd
dare to do anything else; but I'll get away before he comes up, an' I'll go

an' tell the captain of the boat. Then t