She was orphaned at birth and left to die. A rich factory owner who had two daughters of his own and no wife since she had died of influenza the year before took her in. He tried to include her in the family but the sisters always made it hard for her and him. They always made her feel left out. They would tease her and beat her when she didn’t do something they asked/made her do. The kind man died when she was 9. The sisters saw this as their one chance to get rid of her once and for all. So they threw her out.

She wandered the streets until a woman found her. This woman was fairly well off (having money and a nice house and all.) The woman took her in and made her a servant in her house. The work was really hard and her pay wasn’t good, and neither was her lodgings, food, or her self-confidence. The woman was very strict; and if Gwen didn’t follow the directions the woman gave her the punishment was a beating. Gwen couldn’t read, so when the woman gave her a grocery list or sent her for something there was always a beating to follow. She put up with it and stayed for a year or two then she finally ran away. She went from family to family until she was 16. Then she found herself out on the streets of New York with no money, no food, no work, no nothing. She had to steal food scraps and pick pockets to survive.

Gwen had hit bottom. Things had to change or she would end her lift then and there. She didn’t know exactly what but she knew she’d find something. She wasn’t ready to give up.

One day she saw a newsie. This one wasn’t like the other newsies she’d seen. All the others she could tell were boys but this one looked different. He wasn’t exactly shaped like the other boys. As she neared him she was really shocked to find that the him was actually a her. Well, she decided right then and there that she wanted to become a newsie like this girl. She was so excited she walked right over to the girl and said, "Hello, my name is Gwenivere St. James and I want to be a newsie, like you."

The girl looked completely surprised but recovered fast. "Hey da name’s Dusk." she said.

"Nice to meet you," said Gwen.

"Yea you to, now what’s this ‘bout becomin’ a newsie?"

"Well see I decided today that I finally gad to do something with my life. And when I saw you I decided this was it. I want to be a newsie and sell papers."

And so over the course of the afternoon Dusk sold her papers and Gwen’s whole story came tumbling out. Dusk began to feel a bit sorry for the girl and decided that she was probably just the girl to become a newsie, or at least she could try. So Dusk decided to take Gwen back to the Lodging House (at least for the night).

When they were a few blocks from the building they ran into Panda, Race, and Blink. It took all three of them to walk Pup their dog. "Hey Dusk whoya got there?" shouted Race.

"This here’s Gwen." She shouted back. Blink and Race ran over. Pup got excited so he and Panda ended up with them too.

"Hi my name is Gwenivere St. James," Gwen said.

"Hey, me name’s Race, and this here’s Blink, and over there’s Panda and Pup."

"Well I’m glad to meet you all", she said.

And as they started walking along Race, Blink, and Dusk got involved in some big fight about who was better at poker. Gwen looked over and saw how much trouble Panda was having holding on to Pup and since no one was really paying any attention to them (Pup or Panda) she went over to help. She asked if she could help and all the girl really gave her was a shrug. But Gwen could see that she was having trouble so she grabbed a hold of the leash right as Pup would have slipped from Panda’s grasp. (She was really used to big dogs because one of her families had had two German Shepherds.) When she glanced at Panda’s face again she could just catch a small smile of gratitude on Panda’s lips.

Finally they got to the Lodging House and all went inside except Gwen, who fell a little behind out of nervousness. "Ya comin’ in or not", shouted Dusk, "I’ll promise ya the boys won’t bite." So she decided she had come this far, why turn around now? As she entered she saw Dusk standing at the front desk talking to an older gentleman who when she got closer introduced himself as Kloppman.

"So Dusk tells me your lookin’ to be a newsie," he said.

"Yes, my name is Gwenivere St. James and I want to be a newsie," she firmly stated.

"Well ok, sign here," he handed her a ledger, "The first night’s free."

As she turned around she didn’t see Panda anywhere. She felt a little sorry for the girl. She hadn’t said a word the whole way home. She almost wondered if the girl could even speak.

"Here I’ll take ya ‘round to meet everybody." Dusk broke into her thoughts, startling her.

"Did you’s guy’s see that goyl with Dusk downstairs?" Race said as soon as he and Blink got into the guy’s bunkroom.

"Yea she’s a real knockout," added Blink. And so chaos insued as all the boys piled downstairs to see the new girl.

"This here is Mush, Crutchie, Bumblets, and Seven of Nine but everyone calls her Seven. This is Gwen." Said Dusk.

"Pleased to meet you all," said Gwen.

"Do you mean Gwen, as in Gwenivere, as in "Princess" Gwenivere?" asked Seven.

"Well, yes but I was actually named after my great aunt."

"Well we’ve gots the perfect nickname for ya anyway," said Bumblets, "’cause every newsie’s gotta have a nickname. How bout Princess?"

"I . . . like it." She started running it through her head, ‘Princess’, ‘Princess’. "Yea I like it a lot."

"Good" he said.

"Dinner, Dinner, everybody come on let’s go," Kloppman began shouting. As they walked into dinner Gwen started to realize how many boys there actually were. --and how hungry she was.--She couldn’t remember when or what she’d eaten last but she could vaguely remember it was rotten.

At dinner she sat between Dusk and Race with Blink and Irish and Panda across from them. As she looked around she noticed a boy with a cowboy hat and faded red bandanna on. She leaned over to Race and said, "Who is that, that’s dressed like a cowboy?"

"Why that is Cowboy, actually his name’s Jack and he’s kinda the leada of us all."

"Oh."

"He’ll want ta meet ya later. I’m sure."

After dinner since it was Wednesday it was Seven’s night to sing at the Irving Berlin Theater. Everyone was going so they invited Gwen to come along. "So Princess will ya’s come with us ta see Seven? She’s a real natural on the stage it’s always real good," said Jack.

"Sure I’d be honored to go," she replied.

On the way to the show they all started asking her questions about her life. They were all very interested because they’d been through the same things and were always curious about someone else’s experience. She answered them all.

At the show she again sat between Race and Dusk. On Dusk’s other side was a new boy she hadn’t seen before but everyone kept calling him Spot. Blink and Irish were on Race’s other side. As she sat there she was completely enchanted with the music, and voices and how much her life had changed since that very morning.

As they all walked back together Gwen was in a complete daze, when she walked into the Lodging House she knew this was where she wanted to be. Right here with all the mess, and chaos, and complete happiness she could just sense about this place. And as they walked up to bed she remembered the old saying:

Even when you have nothing to give there’s still a lot to go around.

She knew this is what the newsie’s life was like, they had nothing and yet they had everything.