The Brookhaven leader., 1884-12-25
JOE'S TREAT.
How Santa Clause Appeared to
Master Joe and Miss Sis.

1t was Christmas Eve and crowds of
busy buyers and pleasure-seekers
throngcd Avenue A. Among them
might have been seen boy of perhaps
ten years and a girl some three years
his junior, who were evidently bent upon
a very important errand, if one could
Judge by the number of times they
paused and consulted, the look of earn
estness deepening in their faces. Good
faces they were, too, if little soiled.
The boys frank and honest, with q
merry twinkle in each dark eye, whilst
the girls blue ones wore an innocent,
wistful expression. She would have
been quite pretty if it had not been for
the sickly color of her skin (want of
proper nourishmenD and the matted
locks, which only needed soap and
water to render them soft and golden.
A straw bonnet, portion of the brim
missing, on account of its being several
sizes too large, gave the child constant
employment trying to keep it on. Its
counterpart in the shape of hat COW
cred the curly head of her companion.
whose pants could have easily held
another boy.
Presently they paused before large
store with its window filled with cakes.
Square cakes, rounded cakes. frosted
cakes, cakes with snow-white towers
and cunning sugar cupids, cakes large
and small, yellow with eggs or black
with fruit. As the children stood gaz-
ing at the rich display an old gentle
man passed, turned and retraced his
steps and also took his stand before
the cake window. Ever and anon his
kindly face was lit up by a smile as
some remark of the children's reached
his ears.
At last the important question seemed
decided, for the boy, with nod and
the words, You Jess wait here, sis, -
made his way into the store. 1t was
crowded. so he had to wait his turn,
while the girl pressed her eager little
face tightly against the window pane,
tiptoeing on her small, bare toes in her
excitement.
There was quite a pretty flush on
boy reappeared with a small parcel in
his hand, and she exclaimed, eagerly:
"Did you get it?"
"You bet! was the answer, followed
by ng-drawn-out "Oh!' from the
little girl as they made their way along
the avenue, the old gentleman close
behind them. After while they turned
into a side street, and bent their steps
toward a vacant lot, half shut in by a
brick wall and Uttered over with old
packing-cases, bits of tarpaulin and
refuse.
''Is it a nice place where you live?"
questioned the girl, as her companion
piloted her over barrel hoops and old
crockery. A saucy look twinkled in
the boys eyes as he answered:
''Well, sis, it ain teXactly what you'd
call a brown-stone front; it's more,
more on the Oscar Wilde style"
whats that?' and the little girls
eyes opened to their widest extent.
That's kinder style as is made up
no good to nobody" Then he added:
<'Here we are; jess hold on a minute
till light the chandelier, or you might
knock your head agin the frescoing.'
A smell of sulphur, then the faint
glimmer of a candle showed the out
line of large packing-case, partially
covered with pieces of tarpaulin.
Drawing one of the pieces aside, the
boy babe his companion enter, adding:
sit down, sis, till Git the fire a.
going; you're company, you know"
Obeying orders, sis seated herself on
an upturned butter-tub and gazed in
quiringly around. The packing-case
within which she sat stood lengthwise,
hole in its side being concealed by a
curtain of sail cloth, the other side wall
and part "f front were composed of
pieces of tarpaulin, propped up by old
broom handles and one bent iron sta
pie, At the rear stood high brick
wall. Adjoining the packing-case's
sides were part of circus poster, a
Sunday school card and colorcd lith-
ograph of Tony Pastor.
By the time sis had finished her in
spCctions the fire, which consisted of
charred coal and odds and ends of
wood. was lit. 1t was built upon the
ground, under a convenient air-hOle.
so the smoke was not so bad as it might
have been. Then sis produced bum
die that she had Rugged carefully UNI
der her arm during the long walk,
Unrolling the old apron that was
wrapped around it, she disclosed to
view small battered coflee-pot, about
an ounce of coffee and tiny package
of brown sugar, observing, with a little
womanly gesture:
II know very well that a boy
wouldn't never think of that; so /
begged Mrs. Dixie to give me the coffee
pot. Isn't it nice, Joe? and she was
a-going to throw it away and l got the
coffee of a woman as minds her baby
sometimes instead of the penny, and a