"Don't you know? I know one
of the bell-boys."
"Well, how do you get to it?" demanded the newsboy.
Sunny Boy didn't know.
"Well, then, what's your name?" said his new friend.
"Sunny Boy," came the prompt answer.
The newsboy laughed.
"'Sunny Boy'!" he jeered. "That's a great name to be lost with. S'pose
your folks will put an ad in to-morrow's papers for a lost child named
Sunny Boy?"
Now by this time Sunny was very hungry and tired from his long day at
the Park. He was worried, too, and he felt very far away from his
daddy and mother. Two big tears gathered in his eyes and ran down his
face.
CHAPTER XII
SUNNY BOY IS FOUND
"Oh, I say!" the newsboy's voice changed instantly. "Don't cry, kid.
If you say your name is Sunny Boy, all right, it is. And I'll even
have it you live at the Macnapin Hotel, though where that is is more
than I know. Quit crying, I tell you; you're going home along with
me."
Sunny Boy continued to stare at him, the tears slowly chasing down his
cheeks.
"I want my mother!" he sobbed forlornly.
"All right, all right, I'll get her for you," promised the distracted
older boy. "You leave it to Tim Harrity, and there won't nothing
happen to you. Only quit crying, because folks are beginning to look
at you. Come on. I'm through for the night."
Sunny Boy slipped a hot little hand into Tim's.
"Where we going?" he quavered.
"Home," said Tim Harrity briefly. "When I'm sold out, I go home. You
come along now, and don't talk because I'm trying to figure out what
hotel you belong at."
Sunny Boy trotted beside Tim, obediently silent. He was so tired that
his feet stumbled, but he plodded on, keeping a tight clutch on his
friend's hand.
Suddenly Tim stopped short and gave a shout.
"I have it!" he cried, snapping his fingers excitedly. "I'll bet what
you're trying to say is the 'McAlpin'! Aren't you staying at the
McAlpin Hotel?"
"Why, yes," admitted Sunny Boy, surprised. "I told you so."
Tim was in high good humor at his cleverness in solving the riddle,
and he hurried Sunny Boy down the street as fast as he could go.
Presently they came to a smaller street and turned the corner. The
houses were very close together, and it seemed to Sunny that at least
three people were hanging out of every window. Babies toddled all over
the sidewalk, and in one place, where a pushcart had broken down, a
swarm of little children quarreled over a heap of half-rotten pears.
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