Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-01-16
A LITTLE CITY WAIF.

tZ,UUU Will never Iall INTO our hands,
NeW York NeUS.
ALITrLE CITY wAIF.
From a Tough She Was Reclaimed, but IL
Was Too Much for Her Constitution.
One day, as I crossed Rose street, a
little girl about ten years old was en-
gagged in a rough-and-tumble fight with
a boy two or three years older. While
she was doing nobly, it wasn't a fair
fight, and l interfered to protect her.
0.What is it to you?" she hotly de-
manded, as she turned on me with
flashing eyes.
But you are a girl" 1 replied.
.But I kin lick him if he'll fight
fair!"
I drove him off, and sat down on a
doorstep with her.
Girls shouldn't fight" 1 said as the
ragged and unkempt child at my side
grew cooler.
'Not if they are picked on?"
mo"
ssThen they'd call me a coward"
'But suppose they didP You come
of a cowardly sex. Women are not
brawlers and fighters. They are ten
der and gentle, and given to soft words,
and peaceful ways. Where do you
liveP"
Down a piece and up stairs"
'Father and mother liYing?"
"No; but dad and nam is. Dad is
over to the Island; mann washes and
scrubs"
"And what do you do?"
mind the rooms mostly"
SEVER 90 to SCHOOL,"
.Naw!''
Cant you readP"
"Naw!'
"Ever been out in the countryp"
'Naw!' Where is it, and what is it
like?"
And so I described something of farm
life to her, telling her of the fields of
grain, the green meadows, the barns
and orchards and farm-yards. Her eyes
opened wider and wider as I went on,
but toward the end she grew suspicious
and said.
Say, what sort of a dove do youtake
me furP"
"But this is all true-upon my word
it is"
Don't believe it? If it was, mann
would have let on. Say! What dye
want, anyhow"
81 want to talk with you a little
longer. Ever go down to the Battery"
'Naw!"
s'Or to Central Park?"
"Naw!"
Ever see a cow or an oX?n
'I've heard of 'em, [ guess"
s'You have heard of Little Red Riding
Hood, haven't you?"
Cant remember"
"Never heard of Old Mother Hub.
bard, who went to the cupboard to get
her poor dog a bone?"
s'Naw!"
How about the house that Jack
built?"
what JackP Was it the house in
Rose street?"
you have heard of the BiblePg" !
continued, seeing that she was now in
terested.
Eyes"
"What is itP"
81 dunno!'
"Where is ~heaven?"
Somewhere, / guess"
Didn't any one ever tell you that
you must be good in order t. 90 to
heaven when you die?"
"Naw! Nam says [ must be good or
she'll break every bone in my Internal
body!''
Did you ever prayP"
"Noap.''
Ibid you ever hear the Lords
Prayer?"
"Noap. Did youP"
repeated it for her, and when I was
through she said:
Say! I'll learn that some day if
you'll try me!''
Was it queer that [ met her again
and again at the same spot, and that
she was always on the lookout for me,
and that after the first meeting she be-
gan to grow interested. She also
grew ashamed of her garments, and |
noticed that she had tried to patch and
mind. At the third or fourth meeting
she had a clean face and her hair had
been combed. l think the neighbors
looked upon it as a great mystery, but
if they quizzed the child she did not let
me know it. We used to talk of the
country. other cities and people, the
mountains and plains, the ten thousand
things she had never heard of. /
watched her closely, and / could see
that knowledge frightened her eyes
and made her face more gentle. Little
by little she dropped off her slang. and
little by little her manner changed to
the coyness of her sex.
| reached the spot one afternoon to
discover that she had failed me for the
first time. In her hlace was a broad
s~houldered, red-faced woman who
walked up to me and demanded:
Are you the rapscullion who has
done all this??n
"All of what, ma'am?"
Been preaching to my Nanny until
she got so soft and good for nothing
that a fall down stairs has put her in
her cofini'
Nanny dead!''
"And buried, sir, and she went on
about the Lords Prayer and heaven
and green fields until she almost made
me crazy. Oh, you villain, to come
about destroying a poor mothers hap
piness in that way. Begone, or I'll
have the police after YEN 7. San.
A Woman's Rebuke.
A few years ago a strange mistake
was made in New York society. Two