Chapter XXVI: Conclusion

In closing the history of Ben Mayberry, the telegraph messenger boy, it seems to me I can do no better than by using the words of the hero himself. The following letter I received only a few days since. It is the last which has come to hand from Ben, who writes me regularly, as he has done ever since I was transferred from the office in Damietta. I should add that the date of the letter is nine years subsequent to that of his visit to the metropolis as the guest of Mr. James Willard:

"My Dear Mr. Melville,--I am now in my twenty-fifth year.
In looking back it seems only a few years ago that you
called me to you, on the street of my native city, and
offered to make me general utility boy in the telegraph
office of Damietta. My mother and I were nearly starving
at the time, and no kindness could have been more
appropriate than yours, nor could anyone have shown
greater tact and wisdom in cultivating the good instincts
of a ragged urchin, who, otherwise, was likely to go to
ruin.

"You awakened my ambition and incited me to study; you
impressed upon me the beauty and truth of the declaration
that there is no royal road to learning; that if I
expected to attain success in any walk of life it could
only be done by hard, unremitting, patient work. There are
many rounds to the ladder, and each must climb them one by
one.

"Good fortune attended me in every respect. It was the
providence of God which saved me and enabled me to help
save sweet Dolly when the bridge went down in the storm
and darkness, and her mother was lost; yet, but for my
determination to do my best at all times, and never to
give up so long as I could struggle, I must have
succumbed.

"It was extremely fortunate that I saw the burglars at
work in the jewelry establishment of Mr. Grandin on that
memorable night in Damietta. The same stroke of fortune
might have fallen to any boy, but it was incomplete until
I was able to bring the leader to the ground with the
stone which I hurled at him.

"It may be said that all these are but mere incidents of
my history, and possibly I may have magnified their
importance; but, though my progress was rapid, it never
could have carried me successfully along without the
regular, systematic, hard work with which I employed my
spare hours, when not devoted to exercise. In this world
that which wins, is work, work, work!

"When I was fifteen years old, I was made the manager of
the office in Damietta, with a larger salary than I was
entitled to. Three years later, the partiality of Mr.
Musgrave made me assistant superintendent, and now I have
been general superintendent of the district for more than
two years, with a handsome salary, which enables me to
give my dear mother comforts and elegances of which the
good lady never dreamed.

"I married Dolly shortly after my promotion to the office
of general superintendent, and the little fellow that is
learning to lisp 'papa,' you know, has been named after
you, my old, true, and invaluable friend, to whose counsel
and kindness I feel I am so much indebted.

"Dolly sits at my elbow and continually reminds me that I
must insist that you come down and spend Christmas with
us. A chair and plate will be placed at the table for you,
and you must allow nothing less than Providence itself to
keep you away.

"As ever,
"Your devoted friend,
"Ben."

THE END

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End of Project Gutenberg's The Telegraph Messenger Boy, by Edward S. Ellis