How Sammy Earned the Prize
By Mrs. M.E. Sangster
“And now,” said the Principal, looking keenly and pleasantly through his spectacles, “I have another prize offer to announce. Besides the prizes for the best scholarship, and the best drawing and painting, and for punctuality, I am authorized by the Trustees of this Academy to offer a prize for valor. Fifty dollars in gold will be given the student who shows the most courage and bravery during the next six months.”
Fifty dollars in gold! The sum sounded immense in the ears of the boys, not one of whom had ever had five dollars for his very own at one time, that is in one lump sum. As they went home one and another wondered where the chance to show true courage was to come in their prosaic lives.
“It isn’t the time when knights go round to rescue forlorn ladies and do brave deeds,” said Johnny Smith, ruefully.
“No, and there never are any fires in Scott-town, or mad dogs, or anything,” added Billy Thorne.
“But Sammy Slocum said nothing at all,” Billy told his mother. “Old Sammy’s a bit of a coward. He faints when he sees blood. Of course he knows he can’t get the prize for valor, or any prize for that matter. His mother has to take in washing.”
“William,” said Billy’s father, who had just entered, “that is a very un-American way of speaking. If I were dead and buried your mother might have to take in washing, and it would do her no discredit. Honest work is honest work. Sammy is a very straight sort of boy. He’s been helping at the store Saturday mornings, and I like the boy. He’s got pluck.”
“Six months give a fellow time to turn round, any way,” said Billy, as the family sat down to supper.
It was September when this conversation took place, and it was December before the teachers, who were watching the boys’ daily records very carefully, had the least idea who would get the prize for valor.
“Perhaps we cannot award it this year,” said the Principal. “Fifty dollars should not be thrown away, nor a prize really bestowed on anybody who has not merited it.”
“There are chances for heroism in the simplest and most humble life,” answered little Miss Riggs, the composition teacher.
That December was awfully cold. Storm and wind and snow. Blizzard and gale and hurricane. You never saw anything like it. In the middle of December the sexton was taken down with rheumatic fever, and there wasn’t a soul to ring the bell, or clear away the snow, or keep fires going in the church, and not a man in the parish was willing to take the extra work upon him. The old sexton was a good deal worried, for he needed the little salary so much that he couldn’t bear to give it up, and in that village church there was no money to spare.
Sammy’s mother sent bowls and pitchers of gruel and other things of the sort to the sick man, and when Sammy took them he heard the talk of the sexton and his wife. One night he came home, saying:
“Mother, I’ve made a bargain with Mr. Anderson, I’m going to be the sexton of the church for the next three months.”
“You, my boy, you’re not strong enough. It’s hard work shoveling snow and breaking paths, and ringing the bell, and having the church warm on Sunday, and the lamps filled and lighted. And you have your chores to do at home.”
“Yes, dear mammy, I’ll manage; I’ll go round and get the clothes for you, and carry them home and do every single thing, just the same as ever, and I’ll try to keep Mr. Anderson’s place for him too.”
“I don’t know that I ought to let you,” said his mother.
But she did consent.
Then began Sammy’s trial. He never had a moment to play. Other boys could go skating on Saturday, but he had to stay around the church, and dust and sweep, and put the cushions down in the pews, and see that the old stoves were all right, as to dampers and draughts, bring coal up from the cellar, have wood split, lamps filled, wicks cut, chimneys polished. The big bell was hard to ring, hard for a fourteen-year-old boy. At first, for the fun of it, some of the other boys helped him pull the rope, but their enthusiasm soon cooled. Day in, day out, the stocky, sturdy form of Samuel might be seen, manfully plodding through all varieties of weather, and he had a good-morning or a good-evening ready for all he met. When he learned his lessons was a puzzle, but learn them he did, and nobody could complain that in anything he fell off, though his face did sometimes wear a preoccupied look, and his mother said that at night he slept like the dead and she just hated to have to call him in the morning. Through December and January and February and March, Sammy made as good a sexton as the church had ever had, and by April, Mr. Anderson was well again.
The queer thing about it all was that Sammy had forgotten the prize for valor altogether. Nothing was said about it in school, and most of the boys were so busy looking out for brave deeds to come their way, that if one had appeared, they would not have recognized it. In fact, everybody thought the prize for valor was going by the board.
Till July came. And then, when the visitors were there, and the prizes were all given out, the President looked keenly through his spectacles and said:
“Will Master Samuel Slocum step forward to the platform?”
Modestly blushing, up rose Sammy, and somewhat awkwardly he made his way to the front.
“Last winter,” said the President, “there was a boy who not only did his whole duty in our midst, but denied himself for another, undertook hard work for many weeks, without pay and without shirking. We all know his name. Here he stands. To Samuel Slocum the committee award the prize for valor.”
He put five shining ten-dollar pieces into Sammy’s hard brown hand.