ut these are a few of the odd things the boys have to do, and most of
their time is spent in taking notes about. You can see them anywhere in
London in their neat dark-blue uniforms with silver decorations. Once a
gentleman walked into one of the Messenger Boy offices, and said
quietly, as if he were saying nothing extraordinary, 'I want a boy to
take a note for me to America.'

The man in charge showed no surprise, but only asked when the boy was
to start. The gentleman said he might go the next day, which would give
him time to get his clothes together.

The boy who was next on the list was called Jaggers, and he was a
bright, intelligent little lad. He ran home eagerly to ask if his
parents would let him go, and having got permission, he went off
cheerfully the next day across the Atlantic Ocean to New York. He
arrived safely and delivered his message, and then went on to Chicago
and Philadelphia, as he had been instructed. He returned in eighteen
days, having travelled 8,000 miles, and he found he was quite a hero,
and the man who had sent him gave him a medal with a clasp or bar of
silver for each place he had gone to. I think many a boy might have been
frightened when told to go off to the other side of the world so
suddenly.

After Jaggers another boy did an even pluckier thing. His name was
Halsey, and he was sent to California, which is on the other side of
America, much further than New York, and he had to go right across the
continent and find the way all by himself, and he was given no time to
get ready as Jaggers was, but started almost immediately. That boy
afterwards fought for England in South Africa in the Imperial Yeomanry,
and is now in a responsible position in the Messenger Service. Another
boy was sent to the Sultan of Turkey to take a dog as a present. I think
that must have been the most difficult to do of the three things, for
the dog might have died on the way, and when the boy got to Turkey he
would have the disadvantage of being in a country where a foreign
language was spoken. These are exceptional cases, of course, but the
boys are still sometimes sent to the Continent with messages. But enough
about the Messenger Boys.

There is a sight to be seen in London nearly every evening, and
particularly on Saturday evenings, that always seems to me to be most
touching, and that is the rows of little children waiting outside the
shops for food that is sold cheaply. In great shops which sell foo