man'age taught cor'ner no'tice mon'ey black'ing

gen'tle men hon'est (on'est) quite buy earned

[Illustration: Boy offering to shine man's shoes.]

HENRY, THE BOOTBLACK.

1. Henry was a kind, good boy. His father was dead, and his mother was
very poor. He had a little sister about two years old.

2. He wanted to help his mother, for she could not always earn enough to
buy food for her little family.

3. One day, a man gave him a dollar for finding a pocketbook which he had
lost.

4. Henry might have kept all the money, for no one saw him when he found
it. But his mother had taught him to be honest, and never to keep what did
not belong, to him.

5. With the dollar he bought a box, three brushes, and some blacking. He
then went to the corner of the street, and said to every one whose boots
did not look nice, "Black your boots, sir, please?"

6. He was so polite that gentlemen soon began to notice him, and to let
him black their boots. The first day he brought home fifty cents, which he
gave to his mother to buy food with.