The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1897-07-31
At this the child caught a half breath

1AO SeA
wag. Then l am not mistaken. You
are the person 1 was looking for. Very
good. Here is such a beefsteak. Take
it and be happy" He laid the parcel on
her lap.
The little maids utter bewildrement
melted the scamp to further absurdity.
Il am your fairy godfather" he went
on. without so much as the culver of an
eyelash, thrusting Il thumb into his
waistcoat pocket.
Fairy godfather" was Greek to the
child, but she gathered that it meant
something agreeable. for Hal, thus IN
nouncing himself, took out a ten-cent
piece and put it down on the parcel.
Then he turned and with shaking shout
ders went his way out of Katia's ken.
For a full minute after he had van-
ished round the corner the child still
sat spell-bound. Then she picked up,
scrutinized and pocketed the coin. At
length. with a deep-drawn breath and
a bit of shrug which said: "Well, this
is altogether beyond me-" she got to
her feet ard whipped into the alley
hard by. thinking to investigate her
mysterious possession at leisure, out OF
the public eye.
She thumbed the parcel gingerly;
she shifted at it; she poked a hole in the
newspaper and peeped.
At this moment a heavy hand set
tied on her shoulder. There above her
lowered q burly, red-faced policeman.
What v got Thereof demanded this
awful apparition.
GA beefsteak!" gasped Katia.
"Huh!" Fiery Face eyed the parcel
suspiciousIy. "Where'd v get it?"
ga genrm'n give it t me-jus'
now"
"Yes, he did! Give v Saratoga chips,
too. didn't he, n apple pie ably mode?"
"N-no." A big, dry sob broke from
the childish bosom. He only gave me
the beefsteak an'-an'-" Fate's guilt
less little victim fell to weeping az
~piteously as the most accomplished i'm
poster could have done.
THAT don't go, v know!" declared
the experienced officer, p~unctuating
his remarks with one little shake after
another. "Nuh yellin' don't go, neither.
Where'd v hook that beefsteak? Speak
up, now, r 1 run v in, see?"
Of course the threat was an empty
one, but the child took it in all serious
ness; the dire phrase wherewith she a
quite familiar set her frantic.
~ genTm'n did give it t mel" she
protested, sobbing wildly, and strug-
Cling as a terrier might struggle under
the paw of a mastiff. "He did! J-hus'
now! R-right out here. A~h-oo-oo-oo!"
Precisely then there issued from a
doorway down the alley a young man,
with hands in his pockets and hat tipped
over his eyes; it was, in fact, the waiter
who had served Hal, off duty for the
night.
"Hullo, john" he called out, loung-
ing toward the scene of action. whats
the racket"
THAT you, Frank?" returned the po-
liceman. Here's a kid givin' me a ghost
story bout a genTm'n maxim her a
present NV n co 'led beefsteak done up
in a newspaper"
A gradual grin spread over the face
of the waiter as he surveyed the object
in dispute. Il guess she's gibin' it t.
yer straight, john" he volunteered,
and thereupon recounted the episode of
the restaurant.
well, that beats mel" admitted the
disguised guardian of public morals,
allowing his hand to slide slowly from
his c%aptive's shoulder. "All right then,
little girl. Come, turn off the water
works." for Katia, grouping on the
muddy ground after the calico pieces
which she had let fall in her panic, still
sobbed convulsively, albeit diminuendo.
"You ain't hurt. Here!" and this credit
to the municipality held ont a nickel
with the rumpled parcel.
Katia, through tears yet brimming,
blinked incredulously upon the coin,
gulped and brushed the back of a wrist
across her eyes; then snatched the
treasure, and was off like n mad thing.
Two hours later, in the bare little
room of a swarming tenement house
which Katia calls home, one end of the
table bore relics of unwonted feasting.
The other was, as usual, piled high with
''pants." BY the window sat Katia's
mother, her hands in her lap, actually
doing nothing.
The big, hive-like building and the
street below began to grow loud with
wrangling and revel, but she did not
heed the accustomed sounds. Present
~ she would light her lamp and fall to
work again; but now that her child and
herself had had really enough to eat;
now hat such an amount of capital
-15 cents! to think of it!-had been
miraculously added unto them, she
would sit for a blessed ~interval-yes,
even though she thus let slip a whole
precious three cents worth of time
there in the soft dark and rest.
Katia lay, warm and sleepy, amid the
miscellaneous huddle in the corner
which serves for the family bed; a bit
of the famous beefsteak performed its
office of nourishing her little body;
memories of the marvellous day made
golden confusion in her brain. The
bliss of being had returned upon her.
At the selfsame hour Hal Wyman's
crescent reputation a a dinner man"
waXed apace, while he set forth his adj
venture to an applauding table.