gh for a feller like me to handle a kid like her! It
seems like I was holdin' some of that swell candy you see in the shop
windows. It'll be a wonder if I don't daub her all up with my great,
dirty hands. I never knew how big they was till she took hold of 'em."

The little maid must have thought he was speaking for her especial
benefit, for she made reply in language which apparently gave her the
most intense satisfaction, but failed to enlighten Master Potter, and
during perhaps five minutes the two stood on the sidewalk near the
curbstone, jostled rudely now and then by the homeward-bound throng, but
seeing no one who laid claim to the baby.

"This won't do at all," Joe said. "It ain't right for you to stay out in
the night, and I don't know what's to be done, unless you could stand it
for a spell in Plums's shanty. Say, I wonder if that wouldn't go down?
Will you be willin' to hang 'round with us till mornin', if I buy a slat
of good things? When it comes daylight I can find your folks without
much trouble, 'cause of course they'll be right here huntin', don't you
see? Is it a go?"

From what the little maid said, Joe concluded it was a "go," and, since
she made no protest when he walked swiftly down towards where he knew
his fat and hungry friend would be waiting for him, believed he had
chosen such a course as met with her approval.

CHAPTER II.

THE PRINCESS.

It was no easy task for Joe Potter to carry his burden, light though it
was, amid the throng of pedestrians, without being pushed rudely here or
there by those who were so intent upon their own business or pleasure as
to give but little heed to the boy and the child.

Had he been alone, he could readily have forced a passage, but fearing
lest the little maid might be injured by rough contact with one or the
other, he proceeded so cautiously as to make but slight headway, until,
forsaking the sidewalk, he betook himself to the street.

There was a fear in his mind lest Master Plummer, grown weary with long
waiting, had gone home, and this would have been a serious matter,
because Joe had no idea as to the whereabouts of his friend's lodgings.

Once out of the throng, he pressed on at a swift pace until he was
nearly overturned by a boy coming from the opposite direction, whom he
had failed to see in the shadows.

"What's the matter with you, chump? Can't you see where you're goin'?"
he cried, angrily, and the tightening of the little maid'