The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-10-29

those myster1ous ii1promptu dances Of the street child dances that are not taught in any book or school. yet. where each dancer seems instinctively to know what particular twirl or kick comes next.
 The coppers ceased falling In the organ grinders hat, and he moved along half block. So did his little train of dancers, and aria with them. And in his next and his next move, Maria fol- lowed. Flushed, her eyes sparkling carried far away from her tenement
 surroundings by the swing and rhythn of the music, she forgot her charges at
 home, overlooked the fact that she no longer knew the faces of- the chi llsa<eeas:s <eass she was dancing with, nor the name over the corner saloon or over the grocery opposite
 Hey, youse, yer pIayin, after hours. Cut it out or I'll run ye in,'' came from a big blue-coated ninion of the law
 The organ grider knew that fiat. He
 checked off 'Hiawatha' and beat
 nasty retreat down side street.
 Then Maria came back to earth The lights were being turned out in the un- familiar store windows, and even grown up people were going to bed. She was afraid to ask the policeman on the corner the way home. She had heard too many stories about the aw- full things the police do to children who run away. So she wandered around un- til she found newsboy who seemed small enough to be sympathetic with a truant. He guided her over to tha
 Bowery and pointed out the way home. It was only a mile away; but it was long mile. All the time she wanted to cry but then that would let the police-
 men know.
 When she got home, a new fear beset
 her. Her parents had, beyond doubt re- turned and were now waiting to mete out punishment. For a while she of the deserted street overcame all other fears and she crept upstairs As she opened the door of their room, she heard her father and mother enter- ! ing the street door. She did not have l time to undress and slip into bed beside
 her sisters and brothers, so she crept under her parents bed
 When Mother Lorenti made her usual evening count of young Lorenti noses she missed Maria's. She awolxe the six
 sleepers and hurriedly questioned then.I 1 None of them knew that Maria was not sleeping beside them. Then Father
 Lorenti ran around to the Fifth Street Station House and, when he came back, 1 he reported to his weeping wife and children that nothing could be learned I nf ff,air roisSinp Maria All the while the missing Maria was
 growing more and more afraid to come
 out from under the bed. One by one the
 other children cried themselves to sleep. Then the father, having six remaining little Lorentis to feed, went to bed so as I to be fit for the coming days work. Only the mother in the rocker and
 Maria under the bed remained awake.
 Both were crying; the one in the rocker
 over the terrible fate that she knew had
 befallen her child, and the one under
 the bed over the terrible spanking that
 she knew was about to befall her. About 3 o'cock in the morning great
 big sob rose that was altogether too big
 to be choked as it's predecessors had
 been. The mother In the chair heard of lit, recognized 1t, flew to it. Maria was hauled from her hiding place.
 Once more the whole family was
 awakened In the joy of the reunion the spanking was somehow overlooked.
 --New York Sun.
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