The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-10-11

| at the same time, and
Well the next minute each of his hands
held two big lemons.
| As we'll be hung for an old sheep as a
lamb, and he was about to plunge them
into his pockets, when-
"Catch him! Catch him, the thafe of
the world ~ cried the grocer's wife from
behind the counter, and out flew the gro
Ger and away flew Tom.
The lemons bobbed up and down in
his pockets, and his heart bobbed up and
down in his breast, and he ran very fast,
but after him came those who could run
longer.
The grocer, 1.-the, long-limbed, active
mainland policeman-two of them.
Very soon all the tag-rag and bob-tail
of the riverside street; and the cry of
''stop thief!' was taken from the grocer's
mouth by the crowd, so that soon he had
no need to below it himself, but save his
lungs for running.
Let no man blame the grocer; he knew
nothing about the sick child up stairs.
All he saw was well-patched, able
bodied boy making off with so much
profit in the shape of four lemons.
His dealings were with poor people,
and there was nothing in this rifler of
"his basket and his store" to touch his
heart particularly.
If you we're grocer-perhaps you are
you'd know how aggravated he was,
and what just cause he thought he had
for following the flying figure with pur-
poses of vengeance. And the boy was a
thief
The chase lasted a little while but it
ended at last
Tom tripped over curb-stone and
came to the ground.
He was lifted by his collar, and from
his pockets were taken the great yellow
lemons.
1.-THE finest in the lot, the young divil!"
cried the grocer.
And now there was nothing to do but
to choke down his sobs as he was led to the
station house. He had no idea of excus-
ing himself by mentioning his sick sister.
He was son of Adam, but he was not
50 mean as his forefather.
Had he eaten the apple he never would
have mentioned Eve-never.
Little he knew who brought up the
rear of that procession that had turned
out to see him caught.
Kitty, lying in bed, had heard the noise
of the pursuit, and had risen to her knees
and thrust her head from the narrow
opening of the window just at the mo-
ment when Tom started on his hopeless
race.
She knew in moment what had
happened. She knew that Tom had
stolen some lemons for her.
She remembered seeing them; her
words:
"And such lot of lemons in the shop
downstairs"
| Why had she uttered them!
And now what could she do but fol-
low them and tell the truth, and ask them
to punis b her, not Tome
She had not been able to stand on her
little feet for many days, but now the
brief strength of fever was upon her, and
she found herself making her way, bare
footed, and in her little nightgown, down
the stairs and into the street.
She did not know the laws of her coun-
try sufficiently to be sure that he was
not.
The station house-a we'll patronized
institution in that Observation-Disclosures
very near.
Into its doors, between its great gas
lamps, marched the officers and their
prisoner, and the grocer, and all the raga-
mullins, who were at once driven back.
They crushed and crowded away before
the flourish of clubs, and Kitty was
pressed against the wall.
She was almost too small to be seen,
and six sailors, part of the crew of the
Peter Potter, who had been called upon to
give evidence in the case of a comrade
who had been beaten to jelly by
the mate during the voyage, and were
slowly filing out, never noticed her; but
the seventh, a tall, robust man of forty,
paused and stopped down and said:
"Well, little lass, what is the matterl''
"Oh, everything said Kitty. COB,
please, please don't hurt him; hurt him.
I said there were lots of lemons in the
shop, and he took them for me, because
l was sick. Please do it to me whatever
gets done with thieves. Please, he's my
brother"
''It's the boy who was just taken in
yonder, you meant" asked the sailor.
"Yes, brother Tom" said Kitty; "and
they won't let me in, and feel so queer" "
And the sailor bending over her, lifted
her in his arms.
"You are too sick to be in the street,
lassie," he said, and strobe into the build
ing again, and there in the great room
before the latest and whitest-headed old
gentleman she had ever seen, stood Tom
and the grocer.