up for stray, and he made fun of her until she
cried some more, and I got hot and went around to where he was and told
him if he said another unkind word to that girl I would maul him. He
laughed and asked if she was my sister, and I told him that a poor
friendless girl, who was sick and in distress, and who was insulted,
ought to be every boy's sister, for a minute, and any boy who had a
spark of manhood should protect her, and then he laughed and said I
ought to be one of the Little Sisters of the Poor, and he took hold of
her faded shawl and pulled the weak girl against the showcase, and said
something mean to her, and she looked as though she wanted to die, and
I mashed that boy one right on the nose. Well, the air seemed to be full
of me for a minute, 'cause he was bigger than me, and he got me down and
got his thumb in my eye. I guess he was going to take my eye out, but I
turned him over and got on top and I mauled him until he begged, but I
wouldn't let him up till he asked the girl's pardon, and swore he would
whip any boy that insulted her, and then I let him up, and the girl
thanked me; but I told her I couldn't speak to her 'cause she was tuff,
and Pa didn't wan't me to speak to anybody who was tuff; but if anybody
ever insulted her so she had to cry, that I would whip him if I had to
take a club. I told Pa about it, and I thought he would be mad at me for
taking the part of a girl that was tuff, but, by gosh, Pa hugged me, and
the tears came in his eyes, and he said I had got good blood in me, and
I did just right; and if I would show him the father of the boy that I
whipped, Pa said said he could whip the old man, and Ma said for me to
find the poor girl and send her up to the house, and she would give her
a job making pillow cases and night shirts. Don't it seem darn queer to
you that everybody goes back on a poor girl 'cause she makes a mistake,
and the blasted whelp that is to blame gets a chromo. It makes me tired
to think of it;" and the boy got up and shook himself, and looked in
the cracked mirror hanging upon a post, to see how his eye was getting
along.

"Say, young fellow, you are a thoroughbred," said the grocery man, as he
sprinkled some water on the asparagus and lettuce, "and you can come in
here and get all the herring you want, and never mind the black eye. I
wish I had it myself. Yes, it does seem tough to see people never
allow a girl to reform. Now, in Bible times, the Savior forgave Mary