A SMART LITTLE RAGAMUFFIN.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 432, 20 January 1912, Page 7

A SMART LITTLE RAGAMUFFIN.

A woman left a baby carriage a nd a sleeping child outside a shop in a main street the other day whils she went in to make a purchase. On coming out she walked off up the avenue, forgetting all, about the child, and it was twenty minutes before she came running back to find a ragged urchin in full charge. "My blessed baby !" gasped the woman as she sprang forward. "Yes'm," replied the boy. "Purty cute young 'un, he is. Me'n him's bin gittin' along together like two brothers."

'"Why, bless his heart ; he's wide awake."

"Yes'm—bin awake for ten minits. When he woke up he snivelled a little, but I yelled at him, and hei shet up. I purtended I was goin' to put a head on him, but of course I wouldn't punch a kid like him." "Dear me, but how absent-minded I was !" exclaimed the woman.

"Yes, you was," replied the boy, "but wimin is most all that way. Say ! this kid is goin' to be purty sassy when he grows up." "Why, what do ycu mean ?" "He, stuck up his nose at me, ana when I put my fist down and told him to smell it and go to the hospital for three months he jist said, 'Humph !' and stuck it up higher 'n ever. Yes, he's goin' to make a fighter, he is." "Well, you can run along," said the woman as she handed him a nickel.

"Thanky, ma'am. I see a kid in a keeridge on the next block below, and I'll go down and make up faces and square off at him, and see if he's got any sand. Your kid is O.K. — bound to lick Johnson if nothin' don't stop him from growin' upwards."