ling
to forego the pleasures of the circus that he might gratify some
greater desire; a strong and noble one, the man felt sure, to call for
such a sacrifice. Visions of a worn-out mother, an invalid sister, a
mortgaged home, passed through his mind as he said: "And what is it
you are saving your money for, my boy, if I am at liberty to ask?"

"To'stablish my'dentity, sir."

"To do what?"

"To'stablish my'dentity; that's what Uncle Billy calls it."

"Why, what's the matter with your identity?"

"I ain't got any; I'm a stranger; I don't know who my 'lations are."

"Don't know--who--your relations are! Why, what's your name?"

"Ralph, that's all; I ain't got any other name. They call me Ralph
Buckley sometimes, 'cause I live with Uncle Billy; but he ain't my
uncle, you know,--I only call him Uncle Billy 'cause I live with him,
an'--an' he's good to me, that's all."

At the name "Ralph," coming so suddenly from the lad's lips, the man
had started, turned pale, and then his face flushed deeply. He drew
the boy down tenderly on the bench beside him, and said:--

"Tell me about yourself, Ralph; where do you say you live?"

"With Uncle Billy,--Bachelor Billy they call him; him that dumps at
the head, pushes the cars out from the carriage an' dumps 'em; don't
you know Billy Buckley?"

The man nodded assent and the boy went on:--

"He's been awful good to me, Uncle Billy has; you don't know how good
he's been to me; but he ain't my uncle, he ain't no 'lation to me; I
ain't got no 'lations 'at I know of; I wish't I had."

The lad looked wistfully out through the open window to the far line
of hills with their summits veiled in a delicate mist of blue.

"But where did Billy get you?" asked Mr. Burnham.

"He foun' me; he foun' me on the road, an' he took me in an' took care
o' me, and he didn't know me at all; that's where he's so good. I was
sick, an' he hired Widow Maloney to tend me while he was a-workin',
and when I got well he got me this place a-pickin' slate in the
breaker."

"But, Ralph, where had you come from when Billy found you?"

"Well, now, I'll tell you all I know about it. The first thing 'at I
'member is 'at I was a-livin' with Gran'pa Simon in Philadelphy. He
wasn't my gran'pa, though; if he had 'a' been he wouldn't 'a' 'bused
me so. I don't know where he got me, but he treated me very bad; an'
when I wouldn't do bad things for him, he whipped me, he whipped me
awful, an' he shet me up in the