The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-20

through a network of wires and Ire es- capes, shutting out the clean blue of the salne sky that bends over the fairer portions of the city and over the green i hills and quiet valleys of the country There are places, we are told. where
 every prospect pleases and only man is vile, But this was not one of them, for here not even the prospect was pleas ing. s Where Tinto ste was wherever he might lay his hands on food. with some degree of certainty of getting 1t oftener at home: but where he slept was in a small. dark room, close to the ground. Iunventilated and redolent of all smells save those that pleased. Six other chil- dren slept there with him.. on pallets of straw filled ticking, which felt the re- freshing touch of the laundry only when the sanitary inspector commanded a cleansing. It was hot there. too, and in summer it was suffocating. stiffng, dread ful The cooking stove was fin the room adjoining, and if ever a breath of cool air found it's way in and started towaru Tmto's sleeping place 1t lost its virtue in the hot embraces of the stoves whose fires burned always and the smoke of whose torment ascended forever. $.
 Tinto was too small and weak to de- fend himself against those of his com panions who were aggressive and tyran- nous, and he went about shrinking into unoccupied corners and finding his amuse- ments as best he might. But there was very little for him to find. There were so many children who had needs no less than his, and they had so much more strength than he, that he went emp.y handed except for a crust or a bit of candy he might pick up when his lucky star shone for him for a moment before the other children. on their constant in- cursions, had footed alleyways and area ways.
 One day Tinto found a glass marble which had rolled out from. the. game where the big boys were playing, and, hiding In the ledge of a cellarway, wait ed for him to come and take r.. He knew it must have waited for him, because if 1t had not the others would have found 1t easily enough. It was pretty marble, filled with. ribbons of color like the rain
 bow. Tinto had never seen above his | narrow street. But to him they were like the barber pole at the corner, which he loved, as he did not know the rainbow He had never had :. in his hands anything so beautiful as this marble and he hugged it to him and looked down upon 1t as young mother might look upon her first baby. He could not have OApAAAiCQ WilyB HUT ulQ H6 care 10 knOW. It was enough for him to know that he had the marble. One woman said after terward that she had seen Tdnto smile that day, but she could not account for it. and the neighbors properly refused to believe her incredible story. Tinto cherished the marble all the day of its discovery, going into remote places to gloat over 1t in secret and to hug il closer tq him. It looked good enough to eat. but he did not want to eat 1t.
 He wanted to keep 1t always and to love 1t. although he did not know what love was by name.
 That night he slept with 1t tied in his shirt, as he had seen his foster mother tie precious coin in her handkerchief, and he dreamed beautiful things that he did not know. For two days and nights Tinto's life was full and there were no tears in his eyes. He had his usual trou- bles. of course, but now they were easy to bear, for he had 6 sure consolation m the marble.
 But where the light Is. there the shad- cws are also. The big boy who had lost the marble caught Tinto with it, and boxed his ears, called him ugly names and took it away from him. Tinto wept and would not be comforted; but not for the stinging pain of the blows nor the ugly names. He had been long &C., customed to such trifies. The one thing in life that he could hold in his hands and cherish was gone. and T1nto wan dered along the gutter sides utterly broken and without hope. He could see marbles in the ring where the big boys played, or in the windows of the little shops, but they were very, very far away, and the only one that had ever come to him with its blessing was gone forever. The memory of what had been was no relief to him. for he had not yet learned that it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all One Sunday Tnto. feeling restless and strange in an unusually clean face wan dered around the corner into another street. and still another-further from hls