"Mr.Balch told me that he should not insist upon it if the child was unwilling." The next day Charlie purchased all the morning papers he could obtain, and sat down to look over the list of wants.

There were hungry people in want of professed cooks; divers demands for chamber-maids, black or white; special inquiries for waiters and footmen, in which the same disregard of colour was observable; advertisements for partners in all sorts of businesses, and for journeymen in every department of mechanical operations; then there were milliners wanted, sempstresses, and even theatrical assistants, but nowhere in the long columns could he discover: "Wanted, a boy." Charlie searched them over and over, but the stubborn fact stared him in the face--there evidently were no boys wanted; and he at length concluded that he either belonged to a very useless class, or that there was an unaccountable prejudice existing in the city against the rising generation.
Charlie folded up the papers with a despairing sigh, and walked to the post-office to mail a letter to Mrs.Bird that he had written the previous evening.

Having noticed a number of young men examining some written notices that were posted up, he joined the group, and finding it was a list of wants he eagerly read them over.
To his great delight he found there was one individual at least, who thought boys could be rendered useful to society, and who had written as follows: "Wanted, a youth of about thirteen years of age who writes a good hand, and is willing to make himself useful in an office .-- Address, Box No.
77, Post-office." "I'm their man!" said Charlie to himself, as he finished perusing it--"I'm just the person.

I'll go home and write to them immediately;" and accordingly he hastened back to the house, sat down, and wrote a reply to the advertisement.

He then privately showed it to Esther, who praised the writing and composition, and pronounced the whole very neatly done.
Charlie then walked down to the post-office to deposit his precious reply; and after dropping it into the brass mouth of the mail-box, he gazed in after it, and saw it glide slowly down into the abyss below.
How many more had stopped that day to add their contributions to the mass which Charlie's letter now joined?
Merchants on the brink of ruin had deposited missives whose answer would make or break them; others had dropped upon the swelling heap tidings that would make poor men rich--rich men richer; maidens came with delicately written notes, perfumed and gilt-edged, eloquent with love--and cast them amidst invoices and bills of lading.