The boy in the story helped his family during the great depression by selling newspapers.
 In the story it says the boy's dad was selling apples on the street but nobody bought one from him so the boy went with Jacob to sell newspapers to get more money for his family. The author also said in the story the boy said coney island fire!!!read all about it Jacob said no he fliped through the paper then said Babe Ruth hr!!!!read all about it. And it also say in the story the boy saw Mrs. Johnson pushing her baby in a carriage he said can I borrow that. Mrs. Johnson said why you dont have a baby and he told her about the newspaper. He got the carriage and they agreed that Mrs. Johnson get 10 cent.  The boy didn't tell his mom about his father selling apples because he did not want to break the family apart the wanted to say to his dad he did'nt have to pretend he still had his job. 
This shows that the boy helped his family by selling newspaper and keeping his father's secret.
This reminds me of when my dad was training dogs and I gave him my bike tire he get $100 so we split both $50 each like Mrs.Johnson and the boy.