ged the boy by his face rather than his
apparel, for hardly had he spoken when she came boldly towards him and
laid her tiny hand on his cheek with a caressing movement that
captivated Joe immediately.

"Talk about daisies! Why, you're a corker! You look jest like a pink an'
blue image I've seen in the shop windows. What's your name?"

"Essie," the little lady replied, and added what may have been words;
but might equally well be Greek so far as Joe was concerned.

"What's that you say? I didn't jest catch on."

Miss Essie cooed at him once more, and Joe winked and blinked, trying
most earnestly to understand what she said; but all to no purpose.

Then he stood erect, fearing lest the little maid's parents should
appear and reprove him for having dared to speak to her; but the moments
passed and no one came to claim the child.

It was evident Essie had not been accustomed to neglect, for when Joe
ceased speaking, she put a tiny little hand in his and told him in her
childish dialect what may have been a very interesting story.

Joe looked at the pink hand, and then at his own soiled palm.

"I'd give a nickel if I was a little bit cleaner! It seems like it was
wicked to hold her hand while mine is so dirty. She takes the shine off
of anything I ever saw before. Say, Essie, where's your mamma?"

"Mamma dorn," and the little lady clutched Joe's finger yet more
tightly.

"Well, say, do you s'pose this kid's lost?" and now Joe began to look
alarmed. "Anybody what would lose their grip of a dandy little thing
like her ought to be horsewhipped, an' I'd like to do it."

Again he tried to get some information from the little maid, and again
she replied readily; but Joe was no wiser than before.

The night had come; those who passed this way or that on the sidewalk
moved rapidly as if in haste to get home; but no one gave any heed to
the ruined fruit merchant or the charming little child by his side.

"Look here, baby," Joe said, after what seemed to him like a long time
of waiting, and no one came to claim the child, "will you let me take
you up in my arms, if I try not to muss your clothes? I'm 'fraid folks
can't see sich a bit of a thing down there, an' I'll hold you high, so's
your mother can find you easier."

Miss Essie certainly understood something of what the fruit merchant
said, for she held out her hands towards him as if to be taken, and he
lifted her carefully, saying, as he did so:

"It's pretty rou