Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-06-02
BROUGHT UP ON FRUITS.
THE COMICAL STORY OF A
WANDERING BASKET.
Revelations That G 'me With Expressions
OF sympathy-Mysterie of Fruit
Pudding-A Woman with
out Points.

fest newspaper Offices.
Now, Ann may never have been
beautiful, even in the eyes OF that
inevitable one man-indeed, l should
doubt the veracity OF any man who
said she was-but she certainly had
good points, if anything perfectly
round may be said to possess points.
In her ample person she did contain
a kind heart, and was less often
snubbed than most of the itinerant
merchants, says the Inter Ocean
writer. However, there came day,
a sad day for Ann, when placards in
the halls prohibited to people Of her
commercial means of livelihood the
use of the elevator. Five flights OF
stairs was little too much for an
old woman of her asthmatic ten
denotes, so she eschewed the stairs
and her customers eschewed the
fruit they had been wont to chew.
If it hadn't been for the little matter
of the placards Ann would probably
never have come before the public in
the capacity of heroine.
1t had been an unusually heavy
day and the night OF one of the big
balls. Rush your stuff; it's only
ten minutes until press time" the
night editor had adjured in passing
the door. just as the last name and
toilet of one of fashions devotees
had been added to the three-column
list, faint creaking was heard. 1t
was the well-known creak of a wicker
basket scraping against the walls of
the narrow passage that led from the
hall to the room used in common by
the society reporters. In an instant
i projected mental picture of AIMS
broad form, the basket swaying upon
her arm. the array of apples, pea
nuts, and bananas spread out to
tempt the eye. was not in a melt
ing mi sod, one is not apt to be after
a maddening assortment of gowns
and names, and Not anything
this evening" was upon my lips when
little, grimy face peered cautiously
into the room, and a body, basket
and all, followed. Johnny has evil
IDENTIFY dissolved his connection with
the bootblack association and entered
upon the fruit business as his field of
labor" was my mental ejaculation.
His furtive g ance told me he was
not quite certain of his reception.
docs yer want any of this hyereP"
came in husky accents, and a cum
ming leer broadened upon the impish
features. The basket had familiar
air, and had fixed impression that
it belonged to Ann. The boy l also
suspected of being the unquestioned
property of the same person. "Are
you AIMS boyP" / asked, and the
quick glance he gave me and the
prompt "Yes" were reassuring
"And what is the matter with your
mother to-nightg" How pressed for
time he seemed. My copy was in,
and / was disposed to find out what
sort of an urchin could be brought up
on apples.
"Oh, she's sick" Ann sick! The
idea was preposterous. Surely there
were tears in the boys eyes. This
matter must be looked into. AS 1
have said, was new at the business,
and had a fancy for looking into
things. If 1 had paid the boy he
would have gone away at once, l.
suppose; but he was waiting for his
money, and was obliged to answer
my questions.
"Yes, yer gee she was a-crossin'
the steet an wagon hit her an an
other'n hit knocked her basket an
she fell an when they picked her up
they found her leg was broke" Poor
boy, aud he was nobly trying to take
his mothers place. Office boy all
day. he said, and selling fruit at
night The little fellow, ragged and
dirty, did not even have the angelic
countenance one sometimes reads
about He did not seem one bit
noble, but gave him all the change
/ had and asked the elevator boy to
let him ride down in the elevator
with us, as / knew he must be tired,
carrying the heavy basket asked
him where he lived and resolved to
do what l could for poor old Ann.
He smiled, surely a smile of graft
tude, and / moralized on the sadness
OF life, the struggle of the downtrod-
den poor, and succeeded in growing
quite charitably wretched.
Loud voices in the lower hall at
tracted my attention, and when we
reached the ground floor, there, at
the elevator entrance, sound of limb
and tongue, and vociferating vio-
lently aud gesticulating wildly to the
cowed little rascal before nae, was the
redoubtable Ann herself.
"An' yez would stale my basket, We
dirty little thafe, would yep Saints
above, an poor woman cant sit
down her goods to take a mild
dhropin' wet her throat widout some
little good-for-nothin' wretch a rob-
bin her of livery blessed bit o. fruit.
I'll teach yez to steal my basket an
sell it all, / will"
To what length AIMS resentment
might have led her l do not know,
for at this point the boy broke from
her grasp, bolted through the door,
and was soon out of harms way.
Down He Went.
SQuibbs-Croesus. the misar. was