News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-05-22
THE BOY PROTECTOR.
HE STOOD UP FOR THE LITTLE GIRL
THAT HAD NO FRIENDS
And Made Matters Very Unpleasant for the
Fellow who was Little short of a Brute.
tFrom Peck's sun. ]

| Fellow who was Little short of a Brute.
tFrom Peck's SUM-
"What would your Sunday school
teacher have said if he had seen you
fighting with that boy the other day p"
asked the groceryman of the bad boy.
"Oh, that is all right. My Sunday
school teacher he heard about the row
and he came down to our house and
asked me about it, and when I told him
the particulars, he said 1 did perfectly
right. The Sunday school teacher amt
worrying about me half as much as you
are. You see that little girl used to live
near us, and she was such a sweet little
thing that everybody loved her. Three
years ago her mother died, and her pa
was all broke up, and he drank a good
deal, and then he got married again,
and the woman he married was the
meanest stepmother that ever was. She
would maui the girl, and drive her out
doors, and the little one slept in alleys,
and if her pa said anything about it his
new wife would knock him silly, He
didn't dare to stand up for his own flesh
and blood. The little girl got about one
square meal in four days I guess, and
she looked dirty, and her stepmother
said she was disgrace to the family,
and she lied about the girl to her father,
and one day when he was full they both
went to justice and swore that the girl
was incorrigible, and she was sent to the
girls reform school. The poor little
thing found that the Industrial School
was regular home, nearer home than
anything she had since her mother died,
and she was happy, and great favorite,
and learned everything. She was never
bad. No one but the stepmother ever
said word against her. The good
ladies that manage the school knew she
was perfect little angel, and they got
her chance to knit silk socks and nit
tens for a fancy store, and got her
place to board, and made her father help
pay her board, but he had to do it un-
beknown to his wife. This boy that
had the fight with knew her as well as L
did, when she lived at home, and knew
she never did wrong, but he pretended
to think that because she had been an
inmate of the industrial school that she
must be tuff, and he used to lay for her
on the corner when she went to carry
her socks to the store, and he would
make fun of her and call her names, and
ask isiiie couldn't go home with her, and
he twitted her of being reform school
bird, and everything. She told me
about it once, when pa and ma met her
on the street, and ma bent over her and
Rugged her and cried, cause her mother
used to be mas chum when they attend
ed girl college years ago, Ma told me
l ought to see that boy and talk to him
about it, and asked ma what should
do if he wouldn't stop bothering the
girl, because he didn't have any heart,
and ma she was mad in a minute, and
she said, 'Hennery, do as you would if
this little girl was your sister, Well,
that settled his hash, and told the lit
tie girl not to cry about it, and he
wouldn't bother her any more. So
'tother day I was coming along the
street, and saw that boy picking on
her, and she tried to get by him and he
got right in front of her, and just as L
came up behind him, he called her a
name that no boy ought to call any body's
sister. She looked at him, at me, and
her face looked almost as pale and sor-
rowful as her dead mothers face did the
day of the funeral, when all us Sunday
school children saw her, before the coffin
was closed, and the girl said, oh, Hen
merry, I do not deserve this, and it will
kill me- The boy looked around at me
with ieer that reminded me of the vii
lain in the play, and said, You mind
your own business was so mad that
my knuckles cracked like when you
twist your fingers out of joint, and
thought it was my business, cause ma
set me up In the business herself, and
before the girl could say anything, 1 be-
gan to mop the sidewalk with him, and
break pickets off the fence with him,
and bumped his head on the curb, and
kicked him in the watch pocket, and
then he begged, but before l let him up
he promised never to insult her or any
other girl again, and he begged her par
don, and then l borrowed her handker- |
chief to wipe the blood off my nose, and
" aafNeo nOIaI~ ilaIs- tsst,s
only went right home and told ma and
pa, and they was glad, and the boys pa
came over to our house to complain of |
me, and pa was going to lick him, and |
the minister heard about it, and he came |
up to our house and put his hand on my
head and said he didn't believe in fight |
ing, but there were times when nothing |
but fight seemed to be appropriate for |
the occasion, and he put his arm around |
me and Rugged me till he burst one of |
my ribs. And ever since that fight that |
poor little girl has gone about her work
singing, and she walks to the store in
safety, looking as happy as little queen,
smiling and joyous, and she says she
knows her mother in heaven was looking
down and saw that fight, for she sees
her in her dreams every night, and her
mothers face looks happier than it has
any time since she moved to heaven"