Chapter I

IT is no uncommon thing to hear children say, "how happy they should be if they were but rich." They seem to think people must be happy who live in grand houses and "fare sumptuously every day." Many a little boy, as he opens a common-gate to let a fine carriage pass through, has secretly envied those who were riding in it, and has thought what a good thing it must be to be borne about from place to place in a beautiful carriage, as easy as a bird and as grand as a prince.

Ah! Little boy, if you could have known what the lady in the carriage was thinking as she looked at your healthy, ruddy cheeks, and your merry countenance, you might have felt very differently on the subject. It is very likely that, weary with all the "pomp and vanities" of the empty world of fashion, something very like a sigh escaped from her as she thought, "How pleasant to have lived like that child amongst the blossoming May trees on the wild common, and never to have known the falsehoods of fashion and the evil ways of the world."

Some years ago an artist painted a picture, and named it "As happy as a king." What do you think the subject was? Perhaps you will imagine that it was some grand prince riding in a gilded chariot, drawn by cream-coloured horses, with music playing and soldiers in gay uniforms marching before and behind. Or it was a banquet, where all the guests were drinking out of golden cups. Nothing of the kind. It was simply a little peasant boy riding on the top of a five-barred gate, and waving his arms joyfully in the air as the gate swung to and fro.

But I do not want you to take my word alone for what I am saying. The Bible confirms what I have just been saying, but I will only quote one verse, which was written by the wisest of men; and he was not only the wisest, but the richest and most powerful monarch of his time. He was the "Solomon in all his glory" of whom our Saviour spake—the king whose throne was of "ivory, overlaid with the best gold," and who had none but golden drinking vessels. Surely "he" must have known the true value of riches! And what does he say?

"A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches."

Now, a good name may be possessed by every child who prays to God for grace and strengths to "live soberly and righteously in this present world." Moreover, riches often "make themselves wings, and fly away." And we know that even if they remain with us during our lives, we must lose them all when we die. But a good name will remain with us for ever and ever, and will do good in the world after our bodies are laid in the dust. The names of Samuel and David, of Luther and Howard, are still doing good in the world by the remembrance of the example they left behind them. The good name of many a simple village youth who was led during his short earthly life to trust in the merits of his Saviour, and who proved in whom he trusted by obedience to his parents, and by his honesty and good conduct, still lingers around his cottage home, an encouragement to his companions to "go and do likewise."

"The sweet remembrance of the just
Shall flourish when they sleep in dust."

Are we then to despise riches if God thinks it well to bestow them upon us? By no means. Only we must remember that riches may become a snare to their possessor, and we must pray to God that we may not "trust in riches," or we shall find it very hard to enter into the kingdom of heaven. The true disciple of Christ will value money chiefly as it enables him to do good. He will remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said,—

"It is more blessed to give than to receive."

And his riches will be to him as a talent for which he knows he will one day have to give an account. If, on the other hand, God has seen fit, in His infinite wisdom, to place us in a condition of poverty, let us strive to say with St. Paul,—

"I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."

For we may be quite sure that God knows far better than we do ourselves what is and what is not good for us.

The story we are about to tell is of a little boy who, whilst still very young, was enabled, through God's grace, to gain for himself a "good name." We think you will admit, when you have read his history, that this good name was of great value to him.

Ben Holt was a poor boy, and at the time when he first gained his good name, he had never seen such a thing as a green field in the country. As to buttercups and daisies, they would have been looked upon quite as "treasures of silver and gold" by the little boy who had lived all his life in a London alley. This alley was so narrow, that the utmost he could see even of the blue sky of heaven was a small strip between the two rows of tall, dirty houses, which were so close together that a person living at one side of the alley could almost shake hands with his opposite neighbour from their respective windows.

If any country child had asked Ben where he lived, the answer would have seemed to him rather puzzling—"White Horse Alley, No. 2, three pair back." And he would require to have it explained to him that there are parts of London, and of most large cities, where poor people live in narrow courts and alleys, and where the rents of even such places are so high that whole families have frequently to be contented with a single room to live in. In many quite small houses of not more than six rooms, sometimes there are twenty people living in them. This would seem very strange to children whose parents live in the country, and who have been brought up in a neat, roomy cottage, with a nice garden, and plenty of pleasant green meadows all around, and who have all their lives breathed the fresh pure air of the country. Such children little know how many more blessings they possess than little boys and girls who live in smoky courts and alleys, and who do not know what it is to walk in a shady green wood, or to gather a nosegay of wild flowers.

Ben Holt was an only child, and his mother was a widow. They lived in a small back room on the third floor of a house in White Horse Alley. That was the meaning of "three pair back." Whilst Ben's father lived, they had been much better off, and had two rooms to themselves on the first floor. He was a porter at a large wholesale house in the city, and received good wages; but he died very suddenly from injuries received in lifting some heavy weights, and then all was changed.

Mrs. Holt had to support herself and Ben by needlework, and could no longer afford the two nice rooms on the first floor. So she was obliged to move into the little top back room, for which poor accommodation she paid as much as the rent of many a four-roomed cottage in the country with a good bit of garden ground besides. But as Mrs. Holt made shirts for a shop near White Horse Alley, she was obliged to live in London, as she had to go to the shop almost every day to fetch or carry home her work.

She was not a woman of much education, having gone to service when very young, on account of the death of both her parents. But she had through life regretted not having had more "schooling;" for though able to read very well, she could not write at all, and she determined that her little Ben should be as good a scholar as she could afford to make him.

Ben, therefore, went regularly to school, and as he was nine or ten years old, he could read a chapter in the Bible without making one mistake, and was beginning to write large-hand very well. "Book-learning" is a very good thing and a very useful thing, but Ben Holt would never have gained his good name by merely knowing how to read and write and cipher. The heart must be cultivated as well as the head, and it is God alone who can do that through His Holy Spirit. Ben's mother knew that very well, and she did what all Christian mothers should do—she prayed to God night and morning for her dear little boy, and also that she might have strength and grace given her to set him a good example, and to bring him up in the right way.

In simple, earnest faith she prayed on, nothing doubting but that she would receive, in God's own time, an answer to her prayers; for she remembered those words of our blessed Saviour—

"Whatsoever ye shall ask, of the Father, in My name, that will I do,
that the Father may be glorified in the Son."