Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1874-05-22
saIe5 AND gketfBes.
A ROMANCE OF THE STREET.

\ group of ragged girls were playing on
the sidewalk of Baxter street, half blocking
the way with their boisterous antics. DR..
Henry Cotton, young physician attached
to charitable institution in the neighbor
hood, found it almost impossible to push
his way through the crowd of hOydens.
Uncouth faces and rough words greeted
him, rs with no very gentle hands he made
for himself a passage through their midst.
One of the girls, bolder even than her noisy
companions, caught at his coat, and pulled
him half around. He looked at the girl,
whose temerity excited his surprise. She
was about twelve or thirteen years old, and
as ragged and dirty as any of the lot yet
her beauty shown through her dirt and
rags. Her cheeks were round and dimpled,
her lips full and red, her eyes and hair as
black as midnight, and form apparently
wonderfully perfect. DR.. Cotton passed on
few steps, but the girls beauty excited
his interest, and he called her. At first
she was disposed to run away, but finally
she went up to him, taking care to keep
| just out Of arms reach.
What is your name, my little girl p
asked the the young man.
Rose Garden she replied.
Where do you live p
with Nanny Ginger, down there in
! the cellar-she's my aunt, she is.
We'll, Rosa, said he as he started to go,
your too pretty and brightwitted to live in
this place and with these hard people.
Wouldn't you like to so to school, and be
lady when you grow up?'
Roses idea of the lady was associated
with fine clothes, and so she replied ailrIna-
lively, without the slightest hesitation.
Then I'll tell you what to do Rosa,'
added Henry wash your face, comb your.
hair, and do you know where the Girls
Refuge is p
Yes, | guess SO p
You 90 up there, ring the bell, and ask
to live there and learn to be lady; , and
| he went on about his business, leaving the
girl with her noisy companions.
| But Rosa had no relish for romping.
What the young man had said to her, kept
running in her head, and she soon went to
her squalid home thinking it over and
over.
Rosa received little but bad usage, and
I
short ratious from Nanny Ginger who
only kept the girl for the work she could
squeeze out of her. Her present life was
so miserable that no change could well
have been made for the worse, and so she
was inclined to follow the strangers advise.
That night she dreamed Of being q fine
lady, dressed in silk, and with plenty to
eat, and upon waking in the morning she
! no longer hesitated.
After excitirg Nanny Ginger's' wond
ers by washing her face and combing her
hair as well as she could with her fingers,
Rosa slipped out and went to the Girls
Refuge, an institution for the care and edu-
cation Of orphan and pauper girls. Ring
ing the bell, she inquired for Mrs. Brown,
as the stranger had told her to do, and at
last reached the presence of the ma:ron of
| the institution.
We'll, little girl said Mrs. Brown
what do you wantp
| Il want to learn to be lady p
Tie odd reply, coupled with the girls
striking beauty won the attention of the
matron, and Rosa soon found herself an
inmate of the institution.
Eight years rolled on bringing DIR. Henry
Cotton to the age of thirty. Eight event.
full years to the country and to him, for
they comprised the bloody years Of the
great war. At the first breaking out of the
great hostilities he entered the army as an
assistant surgeon, and served throughout
the entire struggle. At the close, like
thousands upon thousands of others, he