The boy helped his family by not telling his mother his dad`s secret and earning money by selling newspapers.
In the story it says Jacob picked up a newspaper. Here it is! This is what they want. Babe Ruth hits home run read all about it! The Babe hits number twenty-five!(25) Read all about it! Soon everyone wanted a newspaper. Jacob was smart by teaching the boy how to sell newspaper. This shows that Jacob was smart about screaming all about Babe Ruth because everyone wanted a newsie.
In the story it also says just before I went up stairs I saw Mrs.Jonhson pushing her baby in a carriage. I asked her could I borrow it. She agreed to rent it to me for ten-cents(10)cents an afternoon. In the story, in addition it says the next day I called out the Babe sits with fans! Read all about it!  Babe Ruth  gave me five-dallors($5) he did`nt know it was him because he did not have his baseball clothes on. He just stared at the money I cant belive someone would pay so much for a newspaper. Just then Jacob walked up to me,do you know who that was?the boy did`nt answer.You sold a paper to Babe Ruth. This shows that the boy was so surprised that he had earned five dollars he did`nt recognize Babe Ruth. Lastly,In the story it says as I left yankee stadium with the coins I had in my pocket making that nice jingle sound I knew that me and the Babe were a team. I also knew that me and dad were a team. This shows that the boy and his dad both worked hard to help their family through hard times. This reminds me of when on a t.v. show called good times they were also in the great depresion and the oldest son had a talent. His talent was painting. So he painted pictures and sold them to people and they earned money. Just like the boy in the story sold newspaper to help his family save up money.