leet on the sidewalk saved me. Say, do you
believe in special providence? What was the use of that sleet on the
sidewalk, if it was not to save sinners?"

[Illustration: Special Providences for a Bad Boy p138]

"O, I don't know anything about special providences," said the grocery
man, "but I know you have got two of your pockets filled with them
boneless raisins since you have been talking, and my opinion is you will
steal. But, say, what is your Pa on crutches for? I see him hobbling
down town this morning. Has he sprained his ankle?"

"Well, I guess his ankle got sprained with all the rest. You see, my
chum and me went bobbing, and Pa said he supposed he used to be the
greatest bobber, when he was a boy, that ever was. He said he used to
slide down a hill that was steeper than a church steeple. We asked him
to go with us, and we went to that street that goes down by the depot,
and we had two sleds hitched together, and there were mor'n a hundred
boys, and Pa wanted to steer, and he got on the front sled, and when we
got about half way down the sled slewed, and my chum and me got off
all right, but Pa got shut up between the two sleds, and the other boys
behind fell over Pa and one sled runner caught him in the trowsers leg,
and dragged him over the slippery ice clear to the bottom, and the whole
lay out run into the street car, and the mules got wild and kicked, and
Pa's suspenders broke, and when my chum and me got down there Pa was
under the car, and a boy's boots was in Pa's shirt bosom, and another
boy was straddle of Pa's neck, and the crowd rushed up from the depot,
and got Pa out, and began to yell 'fire,' and 'police,' and he kicked at
a boy that was trying to get his sled out of the small of Pa's back, and
a policeman came along and pushed Pa and said, 'Go away from here, ye
owld divil, and let the b'ys enjoy themselves,' and he was going to
arrest Pa, when me and my chum told him we would take Pa home. Pa said
the hill was not steep enough for him, or he wouldn't have fell off. He
is offul stiff to-day: but he says he will go skating with us next week,
and show us how to skate. Pa means well, but he don't realize that he is
getting stiff and can't be as kitteny as he used to be. He is very
kind to me, If I had some fathers I would have been a broken backed,
disfigured angel long ago. Don't you think so?"

The grocery man said he was sure of it, and the boy got out with his
boneless raisins, and pocket fu