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

1 you can bet yer life didn't cry Anu as the boy spoke. the lips quivered into stern compression, the little hands grip ped closer at his side. but for all that the flashing eye grew blurred and the lids l dropped downward
 That's a eoss shine on them shoes.
 I was mechanically telling over in my hand the three small coins had drawn from my pocket
 eThat Is a nice job said I, gazing with an unusual show of admiration at the work, "and I thought continued 1, with real regret that l had two dimes and a nickel here and was thinking that. as these were Christmas-times, I'd just give you q quarter for your work.
 s.Honest cap?"
 sHonest9 I repeated. 'but the fact is the two dimes as I thought they were, are only two three cent pieces, so l have only eleven cents in change, after all.'
 "Spect they'd change bill fer you 'crost there at the lunch-oounter." he suggested with charming artlessness.
 Wont have time-there's my train just coupling But take this-I'n see you again sometime, perhaps"
 How big a bill is 1t you want changed?" asked the little fellow, with most acquisitive expression. and a swift glance at our then lonely surround ings.
 T only have one bill with me" said nervously. "and that's a five"
 Well here then" said the boy, hur- riedly, with another and more scrutin- izing glance about him-"guess can 'commodate you" And as I turned in wonder, he drew from some mysterious recess in the lining of his coat a roll ot bills from which he hastily detached four in number, returned the roll, and before had recovered from my surprise he had whislxed the note from my fingers and left In my hand instead the proper change
 This is on the dead. now. Cap. Don't you ever cheep about me havin' wealth, you know: cause 1t ain't mine-that is, 1t is mine, but I'm a-There goes your train. Ta-tan
 ''The day before Christmas, said |, snatching his hand, and speaking hur- riedly. "the day before Christmas I'm coming back, and if you'll be here when the 5:sO train rolls in you'll find man 1 that wants his boots blacked-maybe to | get married in, or omething-anyway | he'll want shine like this. and he'll come prepared to pay the highest market price-do you understand?'
 You list tell that feller fer me-, said the boy, eclipsing the twinkle of one eye, and dropping his voice to an inhec- ton of strictest confidence, you Jist tell that feller fer me that I'm his oysterP
 And you'll meet him. sure?2 said l.
 q will" said the boy. And he kept his word
 My ride home was an incoherent f1ut- tering of the wings of time, in which travail one fretful hour was born, to gasp its first few minutes helplessly; then moan, roll over and kick out it's legs and sprawl about; then crawl lit tle-stagger to It's feet and totter on; then tumble down a time or two and knock it's empty head against the floor and howl; then loom up awkwardly on gangling legs, too much in their own way to comprehend that they were in the way of everybody else; then limp a little as it worried on-drop down ex- hausted-moan again-toss up It's hands -shriek out, and die in violent convul- sions.
 We have all had that experience of | the car Wheels-had them enter into con versation with us as we gaily embarked upon some pleasant trip, perhaps; had l them rattle off in scraps of songs, or | lightly twit us with some dear one s | name or even go so far as to laugh at us or mock us for some real or fancied dereliction of car-etiquette. shall ever | have good reason to remember how once | upon a time boy of fourteen, though | greatly undersized. told the conductor | he was only ten, and although the un- 1 suspecting official accepted the state | ment as a truth, with the proper reduc- | tion in the fare, the car-wheels called | that boy a liar" for twenty miles-and | twenty miles as long and tedious as ht | has ever compassed in his journey | through this vale of tears.
 The car wheels on this bitter winter af all communicative They didn't feel like singing and they wouldn't laugh They had no jokes, and If there was one peculiar quality of tone they possessed in any marked degree Il was that of sneering. They had harsh | discordant snarl, as it seemed, and were spiteful and insinuating.
 The topic they had chosen for that nights consideration was eveidently ol a very complex and mysterious nature and they gnawed and mumbled at II with such fierceness, and, withal, such selfshness, I could only catch a flying l fragment of it now and then, and that I noticed was of the coarsest fibre of in- | telligence, and of slangy flavor. Listen | ing with the most painful interest, l at | last made out the fact that the infection l seemed to be in the interrogative, and | with anxiety the most intense, l slowly came to comprehend that they were de- sirous of ascertaining the exact distance between two given points but the propo- | sition seemed determined not to round | into fuller significance than to query moclingly, How fur is it? How fur is it? How fur, how fur. how fur is it?'' and so on to a most exasperating limit. As this senseless phrase was repeated and reiterated in its growing harshness and unchanging intonation, the relent- less pertinacity of the query grew simply agonizing, and when at times the car door opened to admit a brakeman, or the train boy, who had everything to sell h,t what I wanted, the emphasized re- frain would lift me from my seat and drag me up and down the aisle. When | the phrase did eventually writhe round into form and shade more tangible, my relief was such that I sat down, and in my fancy framed a grim, unlovely tune that suited it, and hummed with it, in an undertone of dismal satisfaction:
 How fur-how fur
 Is it from here
 From here to Happiness?" When I returned that same refrain rode | hack into the city with mel All the gay metropolis was robing for the banquet | and the ball All the windows of the | crowded thoroughfares were kindling | into splendor. Along the streets rolled , lordly carriages, so weighted down with | costly silks, and furs, and twinkling gems, and unknown treasures in unnum- | hered packages, that one lone ounce of needed charity would have snapped their | axles and a feathers weight of pure | hanevolence would have splintered every | spoke.
 And the old refrain rode with me | through it alias stoical, relentless and l unchangeable as fate-and in the same