counted by Tony before he went off
the watch, and when he returned Gabriella had to account for every sale
and every missing piece.

One day Gabriella stood by the side of the stand, thinking how much
happier her life had been when she went each day to the Mission School.
She was wondering, at the same time, where she could have ever before
seen the smartly dressed boy who stood in the doorway of the theatre
office smiling at her. Somehow he was associated in her mind with Miss
Barstow, yet where and when, if ever, she had seen him before was as
indistinct in her mind as the memory of a dream. For several days she
had seen him standing there, and from the first she had the impression
that she had seen him somewhere else. She could not place him; he was
much better and more stylishly dressed than any of the boys she had ever
seen about her home or the school. He always had a friendly nod and
smile for her, and she nodded and smiled in return; and although they
had never spoken, she had never given up trying to think where, if
anywhere, she had seen him besides there in front of the theatre.

As he stood there this day, looking somehow as if he owned the Bowery, a
rough young fellow loafed up to the stand and asked, in an impudent
manner,

"Say, sis, how much are dese bananas?"

"A cent each," answered Gabriella.

[Illustration: "WELL, JUST CHARGE DIS ONE," HE SAID, SEIZING A BANANA
AND STARTING TO RUN.]

"Well, just charge dis one," he said, seizing a banana and starting to
run.

As Gabriella began to cry out for the thief to stop, the smartly dressed
lad in the doorway flew out like a Skye terrier after a rat. He had
headed off the loafer with such surprising quickness that the latter was
more amazed than frightened when the boy demanded of him to give up the
stolen fruit. This demand only made the fellow laugh. The laugh soon
came to an end, though, because Danny Cahill--for that was the name of
the smaller boy--had not forgotten any of the quick and fierce methods
he had learned to use in fighting larger boys when he had been a street
arab. It was a very short struggle, and almost before the frightened
Gabriella knew what was happening Danny was standing before her smiling,
and her tormentor was skulking away, well thrashed for his meanness.

Danny's victory had been complete; he had not only vanquished the enemy
but recovered the stolen property; and as he put the banana carefully
back on the stand he said