The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-02-18

me and kiss me when 1 was cold and many time, l am sure, when the days earnings had been scanty, the little girl must have gone to sleep hungry, that might not be stinted in my supper.
 One of my grievances, and that the sorest of all, was the loss of my be- loved fiddle. This, for all her good will, Ninette was powerless to allay.
 "Dear Anton," she said, "do not mind about it. earn enough for both with my organ, and some day we shall save enough to buy thee a new fiddle. When we are together, and have got food and charcoal, what does it matter about an old fiddle? Come, eat thy supper, Anton, and I will light the fire. Never mind, dear Anton" And she laid her soft little cheek against mine with a pleading look.
 "Don't," 1 cried, pushing her away i; "you can't understand, Ninette; you can only grind an organ-just four tunes, always the same. But I loved my fiddle-loved it! loved it!" I cried passionately. "It could talk to me, Ninette, and tell me beautiful new things, always beautiful, and always new. Oh, l shall die if I cannot play !"
 It was always the same cry, and Ninette, if she could not understand, and was secretly little jealous, was as distressed as I was but what could she do.
 Eventually got my violin, and it was Ninette who gave it to me. The manner of its requirement was in this wise:
 Ninette would sometimes invest her savings in violets, which she divided with me, and made into nosegays for us to sell in the streets at night.
 Theatre-doors and frequented places on the boulevards were our favorite spots.
 One night we had taken up our sta- tion outside the opera, when gentle man stopped on his way in and asked Ninette for button-h hole. He was in evening dress and in great hurry.
 "How much?" he asked shortly.
 "Ten sous, m'sieu," said exorbitant little Ninette, expecting to get two at the most.
 The gentleman drew out some coins hastily and selected a bunch from the basket.
 "Here is a franc," he said, q cannot wait for change" and, putting coin into Ninette's hand, he turned into the theatre.
 Ninette ran towards me with her eyes gleaming she held up piece of money exultingly.
 "1fenS, Anton!" she cried, and saw that it was not franc, as we had thought at first, but gold Napoleon.
 believe the good little boy and girl in the story books would have immediately sought out the unfortu- nate gentleman and bid him rectify his mistake, generally recieving, so the legend runs, a far larger bonus as reward of their integrity. I have never been particularly good little boy, however, and 1 don't think it ever struck either Ninette or myself perhaps we were not sufficiently speculative-that any other course was open to us than profit by the mistake. Ninette began to consider how we were to spend it.
 "Think of it, Anton-a whole gold Louis. A Louis," said Ninette, count ing laboriously, "is twenty francs, a franc is twenty sous, Anton; how many sous are there in Louis? More than hundred?"
 But this piece of arithmetic was be- yond me; shook my head dubiously.
 "What shall we buy first, Anton?" said Ninette, with sparkling eyes. "You shall have new things, Anton, a pair of new shoes and hat and T."
 But l had other things than clothes in my minds eye; I interrupted her.
 "Ninette, dear little Ninette" said coaxingly, remember the fiddle."
 Ninette's face fell, but she was tender little thing, and she showed no hesitation.
 Certainly, Anton" she said, but with less enthusiasm "we will get it to-morrow-one of the fiddles you showed me in M. Boudinot's shop on the Quai. Do you think the ten franc one will do, or the light one for fif- teen francs?"
 "Oh, the light one, dear Ninette," I said; Git is worth more than the extra money. Besides, we shall soon earn it back now. Why, if you could earn such lot as you have with your old organ, when you only have to turn handle, think what lot I shall make, fiddling. For you have to be some thing to play the fiddle, Ninette."
 "Yes," said the little girl, wincing {; "you are right, dear Anton. Perhaps you will get rich, and go away and leave me?"
 "No, Ninette," I declared grandly, "1 will always take care of you. I