Readers Digest: September 2000

A Boy with a Mission

It was a lot of money, but the boy was tireless
would raise
By: the five
INDIRA dollars and not to
SHARMA looked at his mother and smiled.
tell anybody. Sunlight from the window hides her

I
Hearing the sound of the shoulder-length blonde hair. Slim and
N 1945, a 12 year old boy saw hammering from the side street, Reuben beautiful, she was the center of the
something in a shop window that had an idea. home, the glue that held it together.
set his heart racing. But the price He ran towards the sound and Her chores were never-ending,
– five stopped at the construction site. People sewing clothes for her family on the old
dollars – was far beyond Reuben Earle’s built their own homes in bay Roberts, Singer treadle machine, cooking meals
means. Five dollars would buy almost a using nails purchased in hessian sacks and baking bread, planting and tending
week’s groceries for his family. from a local factory. Sometimes the vegetable garden, milking the goats and
Reuben couldn’t ask his father for sacks were discarded in the flurry scrubbing soiled clothes on the
the money. Everything Mark Earle made building, and Reuben knew he could sell washboard. But she was happy. Her
through fishing in Bay Roberts, them back to the factory for five cents a family and their well being were her
Newfoundland, Canada, Reuben’s piece. highest priority.
mother Dora, stretched like elastic to That day he found two sacks, Everyday after chores and school
feed and clothe their five children. which he took to the rambling Wooden Rueben scoured the town, collecting the
Nevertheless, he opened the factory and sold to the man in charge of hessian nail bags. On the day the two-
shop’s weathered door and went inside. packing nails. room school closed for summer, no other
Standing proud and straight in his lour- The boy’s hand tightly clutched student was more delighted than Reuben
sacked shirt and washed-out trousers, he the five-cent pieces as he ran the two was, now, he’d more time for his
told the shopkeeper what he wanted, kilometers alone. mission.
adding, “but I don’t have the money Near his house stood the ancient All summer long, despite chores
right now. Can you please hold it for me barn that housed the family’s goats and at home –weeding the garden, cutting
for sometime?” chicken. Reuben found a rusty baking wood and fetching water –Reuben kept
“I’ll try”, the shopkeeper smiled. soda tin and dropped his coins inside. to his secret task.
“Folks, round here don’t usually have Then he climbed into the loft of the barn Soon the garden was harvested,
that kind of money to spend on things. It and hid the tin beneath a pile of sweet- the vegetables canned and stored, and
should keep for a while”. smelling hay. In dinnertime, when the school reopened. The leaves fell and
Reuben respectfully touched his Reuben arrived home, his father sat at the winds blew cold. Reuben searched
worn cap and walked out into the the big table, working on fishing net. and wandered the street diligently
sunlight with the bay rippling in a Dora was at the searching for his hessian treasures.
freshening wind. There was purpose for Often he was cold, tired and
his loping stride. He hungry, but the thought of the object in
kitchen stove, ready to serve dinner as the shop window sustained him.
Reuben took his place at the table. He
 Sometimes his mother would ask, Then clutching the tin can, he most valued possession to her son
“Reuben where were you? We were headed for the shop. Reuben. Now in his late 60s with two
waiting for you to have dinner.” “ I have the money,” he solemnly sons and five grandchildren. Reuben
“Playing, Mum. Sorry”. told the owner. lives in Bradford, Ontario, having retired
from his career as a real-estate agent.
Dora would look at his face and The man went to the window and His wife of 47 years, Lilian says,
shake her head, Boys. retrieved Reuben’s treasure. “Reuben has never changed from his
Finally, spring burst into glorious He wiped the dust off and gently loving boy who gave his mother that
green and Reuben’s spirits erupted. The wrapped it in a brown paper. Then he brooch.”
time had come! He ran into the barn, placed the parcel in Reuben’s hands. Reuben’s eyes mists at the
climb to the hayloft and uncovered the Racing home, Reuben burst memory of his mother, “she was the
tin can. He poured the coins out and through the front door. His mother was most beautiful person in the world.”
began to count. scrubbing the kitchen stove. “Here,
Then he counted again. He Mum! Here!” Reuben exclaimed as he
needed 20 cents more. Could there be ran to her side. He placed a small box in
any sacks left anywhere in town? He had her work roughened hand. She
to find four and sell them before the day unwrapped it carefully, to save the
ended. paper. A blue velvet jewelry box
Reuben ran down Water Street. appeared. Dora lifted the lid, tears
The shadows were lengthening as beginning to blur her vision.
Reuben arrived at the factory. The sack In gold lettering on a small
buyer was about to lock up. almond shaped brooch was the word
“Mister, please don’t close up MOTHER.
yet”. The men turned and saw Reuben It was Mother’s Day, 1946.
dirty and sweat stained. Dora had never received such a
“Please, Mister I have to sell the gift, she had no finery except her
sacks now-please”. The man could tell wedding ring. Speechless, she smiled
Rueben was close to tears. radiantly and gathered her son into her
“Why do you need this money so arms.
badly?”.
“It’s a secret”. In 1947 Mark Earle moved to
The man took the sacks, reached Toronto. Dora and the children stayed in
into his pocket and put four coins into bay Roberts until Mark could afford to
Reuben’s hands. Reuben murmured a send for them. Two years later the Earle
family was joyously united.
thank you and ran home. Dora Earle died in 1983 in
Toronto at 75. In her will, she left her