nd kissed him on both cheeks, his disfigured face beaming
with joy. One of the jurymen, a Jew, put his hand impulsively in his
pocket, emptied it into his hat, and passed the hat to his neighbor. All
the others followed his example. The court officer dropped in half a
dollar as he stuffed its contents into the happy Italian's pocket. "For
little Vito," he said, and shook his hand.

"Ah!" said the foreman of the jury, looking after the reunited friends
leaving the court-room arm in arm; "it is good to live in New York. A
merry Christmas to you, Judge!"

OUR ROOF GARDEN AMONG THE TENEMENTS

A year has gone since we built a roof garden on top of the gymnasium that
took away our children's playground by filling up the yard. In many ways
it has been the hardest of all the years we have lived through with our
poor neighbors. Poverty, illness, misrepresentation, and the hottest and
hardest of all summers for those who must live in the city's crowds--they
have all borne their share. But to the blackest cloud there is somewhere a
silver lining if you look long enough and hard enough for it, and ours has
been that roof garden. It is not a very great affair--some of you readers
would smile at it, I suppose. There are no palm trees and no "pergola,"
just a plain roof down in a kind of well with tall tenements all about.
Two big barrels close to the wall tell their own story of how the world is
growing up toward the light. For they once held whisky and trouble and
deviltry; now they are filled with fresh, sweet earth, and beautiful
Japanese ivy grows out of them and clings lovingly to the wall of our
house, spreading its soft, green tendrils farther and farther each season,
undismayed by the winter's cold. And then boxes and boxes on a brick
parapet, with hardy Golden Glow, scarlet geraniums, California privet, and
even a venturesome Crimson Rambler.

When first we got window boxes and filled them with the ivy that looks so
pretty and is seen so far, every child in the block accepted it as an
invitation to help himself when and how he could. They never touch it
nowadays. They like it too much. We didn't have to tell them. They do it
themselves. When this summer it became necessary on account of the crowd
to eliminate the husky boys from the roof garden and we gave them the gym
instead to romp in, they insisted on paying their way. Free on the roof
was one thing; this was quite another. They taxed themselves two cents a
we