The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-10-19


 I'll give you the whole game. I will. now. honest.i
 I held out the open case.
 .Nofhin' mean about you. Is theyzs he said, eagerly taking a fresh cigar in one hand and the stub in the other. "A ten center. too-oh. I guess notr but. to my surprise. he took the stub between his lips and began opening his coas. Guess I'll jist fat this daisy, and. save CT up for Christman. No, I won't. eether. he broke in suddenly. with a bright. keen flash of second thought "Tell you what I'll do' holding ID the cigar and gazing at 1t admiringly; shes a ten-center. ain't she2"
 I nodded.
 she?s
 Every cent of it." I repeated.
 Then give me a nickel and she's youfn-'eause if you can afford to give this to me fer nothin', looks like I opt to let you have it fer half-price;" and as I laughingly dropped the nickel in his hand he concluded: And they's nothin' mean about me, neetherr'
 Now. go on with your story" said I. How about that game you were 'giv- ing this morning?"
 Well, I'll tell you, Cap. Us feIlers has got to lay for every nickel. cause none of us is bondholders; and they's days and days together when we don't make enough to even starve on.-xVhat mean is, we ony make enough 10 pay fer az gervatin' our appetites with 1ist about enough chuck to keep us starvin'- hungry. So, you see, when feller ain't got noth- in else to do, and his appetite won't sleep in the same bunk with him. he's bound to git onto somepin' crooked and git up all sorts O dodges to git along Some give em one thing. and some anoth- O hot. 4taarr ar1+ 4, I, .fx.FxE slick now, cause people won't have or phans, and fits, and 'cripples,' and drunk fathers and mothers that eat morphine and white swelin'' and con sumption, and all that sort O taffy! Got to git CT down flner'n that! But I been a-gittin in my work all the same, don't you fergit! You won't ever blow, now? ?'
 How could I blow and what If I did |? T don't live here" I replied
 Well, you better never blow, anyhow; cause if ever us duffers would git onto it you'd be a spilled oystern
 Co on," said I. with an assuring tone.
 "The lay I'm on jist now" he con- tinued, dropping his voice and looking cautiously around, lis a-hidin' my box and a-rushin' in, suddent-likes where they's crowd O nobs a-taIIxin' politics CT somepin', and a-Jist startin' in, and fore they know what's a-eomfn' I'm a. fiashin up a nickel CT a dime, and a-teIl- in 'em if on'y had enough more to make fifty cents I could buy blackfn'- box, and wouldn't have to ast no boot O. my grandmother And two niputes chinnin' does It. don't you see. cause they don't know nothin' bout biackin'- boxes; they're jist as soft as you air They got an idly, maybe. that blackin'- boxes comes all the way from Chiny with eokeynut whiskers packed round 'em; and l make 1t solid by a-sayin' I'm ony goin' to git a secondhand box-see? But that ain't the pint-it's MT. Nickel r already got. ohl it'll paraiyze 'em ever time. Sometimes fellers'l make up sev- enty-five cents CT a dollar, and tell me to git new box. and go into the busi- ness right That's a thing that always rattles me. Now. if they'd on'y growl a little and look like they was jist a-puttin' up cause the first one did I can stand 1t; but when they go to pattin' me on the head, and a-tellin' me that's right and not to be afeard O work and I'll come out all right and a-tellin' me to git a good substantial box while I'm a-gittin' . and a-ponyin' up handsome there's where I weaken-I do honest!r And never so plainly as at that moment did see within his face and in his eyes the light of true nobility.
 You see," he went on, in a tone of voice half courage, half apology, '1' got a family on my hands. and jist got to git along somehowi I could git along on the square deal as long as mother was aliYe-'cause she'd workout ever sence she died-and that was winter fore last I've kindo' had to double on the old thing all sorts O ways. But Sis don't know it. Sis she thinks I'm the squar- est muldoon in the business," and even side by side with the homely utterance a great sigh faltered from his lips. HAn6 yVhn fa Sic o's T x.,ftl interest
 "Sis?' he repeated, knocking my foot from the box, and leaning back, still in the old position, his hat now lying on the ground beside him, and his frowzy hair tossed backward from the full, broad brow-"Who's Sis?" he repeated with an upward smile that a4most dag zled me-''W'y, Sis is-is-w'y, Sis is the boss girl-and don't you fergit ftp No need had he to tell me more than this. I knew who Sis was by the light of pride in the uplifted eyes; I knew who Sis was by the exultation in the broken voice, and the half-defiant tossing of the frowzy head; I knew who Sis" was by the little, naked hands thrown upward openly; knew who Sis" was by the tear that dared to trickle through the dirt upon her ragged brothers face. And don't you forget iti
 O that boy down there upon his knees! there in the cinders and the dirt-so far, far down beneath us that we trampie on his breast and grind our heels into his very heart; o that boy there, with his lifted eyes, and Gods own glory shining in his face, has taught me, with an eloquence beyond the trick of mellow sounding words and metaphor, that love may find purer home beneath the rags of poverty and vice than in all the great warm heart of Charity.
 1 hardly knew what impulse prompted me. but as the boy rose to his feet and held his hand out for the compensation for his work, I caught the little dingy palm close close within my own, and wrung 1t as l would have wrung the hand of some great conqueror.
 The little fellow stared at me in won derment. and although his lips were si- lent, I can but believe that had they parted with the utterance within his heart my feelings had received no higher recognition than the old contemptuous phrase, "Oh, what you givin' me?"
 And so you've got a family on your hands?' I inquired, recovering an air of simple curiosity, and toying in my pocket with some bits of change. How much of family?"
 "On'y three of us now"
 Only three of you, eh? Yourself, and Sis, and-and-"
 "The old man." said the boy, uneasily; and after a pause, in which he seemed to swallow an utterance more bitter, he added, And he ain't no good on earthi"
 Can't work?'' I queried.
 Wont work" said the boy, bitterly He won't work-he won't do nothin- on'y budget And l haf to steer him in ever' night cause the GODS won't pull