The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1908-01-10
MINNIE BOO-HOO.

81 hear some one crying!" said
Nellie.
Its only cat," said Will.
"They're always yowling."
The two were taking walk to-
gether and they had come to the
big river bottoms, a section they had
been told never to enter. The crying
grew louder.
"It sounds just like baby" whis-
pered Nellie.
"'Tain't no baby" said Will dis
dainfully; "there are no houses round
here. It's a wild animal, and I'm go
ing up to that cotton wood tree and
I'm going to shoot right plumb into
the noise. I'll kill the thing, what
ever it is"
He was very brave and meant what
he said, and he had brought out in
the lunch pail a beautiful new pistol
belonging to his brother Jim. The
country was newly settled and grown
up people generally thought it neces-
sary to carry arms, but VIII was only
ten, and not for the whole world
would his mother have let him carry
Jim's pistol had she known it.
Nellie was not brave, so she said
in a weak little voice: ""I think I'll
go back home fore you shoot off that
pistol"
Very WE'LL" said VIII, putting up
the pistol, which, to tell the truth, he
was a wee bit afraid of himself.
"Girls are towards, I know. But,
Nellie" the boy continued, you're
not to be let to 60 home by yourself.
I'll go, too"
A pitiful cry came then.
"Its a baby!" said Nellie. "Come
along, I'm coward, know, but I've
got pluck enough to go into that
bunch of rushes and see If some one
hasn't left poor little baby there"
Right among the tall grasses in a
coarsely woven basket lay a cunning
little baby. "Just like Moses in the
Bible" said Nellie, when the tiny
papoose stopped crying and turned
it's black, beady eyes to her face.
"Gra-cious, cried Will. Its an
Injun, and it's alive! Come along,
stay here. We must run home double
quick"
The papoose was strapped to a
board and could not wriggle about
much, but it twisted it's little neck
around like a California owl and gave
Nellie a wide smile that showed two
lines of pink gums, and said, Goo
goo-goo." just as white baby would.
"Oh, Will, wait minute, I'm not 60
ing to leave the poor thing to die;
I'm going to take it home and raise
it. I'd a heap rather have it than a
wax doll from New York like Lizzie
Leigh's."
"Oh, say!" Will burst out. you'll
risk your life if you touch that kid.
You don't know what pernickerty
kind of an Injun will be long after it
pretty soon"
Il doat care if big Injun comes
and kills mel" declared Nellie, def
antly, looking fearfully over her
shoulder, however, to see if chief in
war paint and feathers was in sight,
but in spite of her fears, picking up
the baby and walking quickly toward
home with it, whispering all sorts OF
soothing things into it's ear, to all of
which the little red morsel only re-
piled as before, "Goo-goo-goo'"
Mellie's mother took the baby N
and took care of it, treating it just
as kindly as if it mad been her own.
She is just such a good woman as
Nellie will be when she grows up.
Will told his father the story and
he made up party TO go off and hunt
for the parents of the little copper
colored baby. But all that they could
find out was that a flood which car
ried off the buildings in two Dakota
villages took in it's wake and swept
away an Indian encampment, and It
seemed quite possible that the baby
in the basket had fioated off On the
rush of water and lodged far away in
the swamp, where the children found
it crying.
That was five years ago. No one
has ever come to look for it. The
little baby has grown to be quite a
big girl now, and has made Nellie
happier than ten wax dolls with red
hair could have done. OF course her
real name could never be learned, but
Mellie's mother, VINO was a great
reader, called her Minnie-boo-hoo,b be-
cause she had heard that after Abra-
ham Lincoln read about Minnie-ha-
ha Changing Water"D in "Hia-
watha," he said, crying water would
be Minnie-boo-hoo l think that was
funny, but some of the neighbors said
1t was nonsense, and SO they just
called Mellies red little Indian Doll
Baby Misunderstanding Star.