LITTLE RED NOSES.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1859, 7 February 1880, Page 2

LITTLE RED NOSES.

How that north wind whistled and stung the other day ! It was the first signal ®f a long, dreary wint-. r, and even men in overcoats turned shnrp corners to get out of the biting blast. Two children, a boy and girl, neither over nine years old, stood shivering in a doorway on Monroe avenue, wishing to go on to their lowly home, hut dreading the wind. They crept closer and closer to each other, and their chins quivered and their noses grew red as they grew colder. Hundreds of men and women passed up and down without care, but by and by along came a whistling, jovial lad of fourteen, who was swinging his boot-black’s kit by a strap and picking up the steps of some clog dance. He saw the shivering bits of humanity where others were blind, and halting before them with a “ c'ic jigger-rigger ” of his heels and a toss of his box, he called out,

“ Kin 1 borry them ’ere china o’ yours about an hour T ” “Yes, ma’am,” demurely replied the girl. “I kin, c-h ? ho ! ho ! ho ! That’s a giveaway on me ! Be you chickens cold ? ” “ Yes. ma am ” she answered again. “ And that ’re cub is your brother, I spose ? Well, when I’m cold I git warm. What do you do —freeze !” “ Yes ma’m, if you please,” she replied. “If I’please—ha! ha! ha!—’nother giveaway on me! Well, you autumn leaves come along with me. I hain’t got no influence on the weather, but 1 kin small a hot

stove as fur off as the next shiner in this "town. Come right over to this store. He led the way across the street and into on office where there was a fire. He had placed chairs for them when a man came in from a back room and said : “ What do you children want here ? “Want some o’ this waste hotness,” bluntly replied the shiner. “These ’ere cubs is nigh froze to death, and I brought ’em here to thaw out.” “ And we won’t even look at you, nor cough, nor sne ze ! ” added the little girl, as she saw a frown on the man’s face. “That’s richness; there’s innocence! laughed the shiner, and the man’s face cleared and he poked up the fire and said they could sit nearer. , “S’pose ine’n you chip in and buy em aumthin’ to stay their stomachs 1 ” suggested shiner all of a sudden. “Tell you what, some of the children in this town don t have a square meal any more’n you'n me wear diamonds. Little gal, are ye hungry ? “Yes, ma’am, if you wont’s be mad at ns,” she replied. The man stood irresolute, but shiner went down into his pocket, rattled around and said: “ Here’s ten cents that says they are hungry! ” “ Well I’ll give as much, replied the man. “Yon go and buy something and they can sit here and eat it. ’ Shiner bought crackers and cheese, and the children ate until he felt obliged to say : “Now you cubs go a leetle bit slow and save the rest for supper. Kin ye find the way home alone ? ” “Yes, ma’am.” “ All right, then. We’re dead to rights obliged to this man, and I’ll black his boots besides. You’d better run along home now. What ye goin’ to tell yer mother ? ” “ I’ll tell her we come awful near going to Heaven, and my little brother he thanks yon, too, and now we’ll go, and—and thank you, ma’am, ever so many times, goodbye ” The man looked after them through the window with softer lines in his face than had been there for months. Toe boy stood outside on the walk and watched until they had turned a corner, and t' en exclaimed : “Phew! but I most feel that I was ingaiged to that gal! ”