ther you or I can do. Youngsters have to yell
jest about so much,--it makes 'em healthy,--an' she'll quiet down after
a spell. Why don't you give her somethin' to eat?"

"I tried that, but she wouldn't take a single crumb. The trouble is, we
haven't got what she wants. Now, if there was some milk in the house--"

"But there ain't, so what's the use thinkin' of that?"

"It must be near mornin', an' if there is a bakeshop anywhere 'round,
you could get some."

"Do you want a feller to turn out in the night an' travel 'round the
streets lookin' for milk?" Plums asked, indignantly.

"It is better to do that than have a dear little baby like this die."

"But there's no danger anything of that kind will happen. I've seen lots
of worse scrapes than this, but they always ended up all right."

"Look here, Plums, will you go out an' get some milk?"

"What's the use--"

"_Will_ you go an' get the milk?"

Just for an instant Master Plummer stood irresolute, as if questioning
the necessity for such severe exertion, and then a single glance at his
friend's face decided the matter.

In silence, but with a decided show of temper, the fat boy picked up one
of the tomato-cans, jammed his battered hat down over his head, and
stalked out of the shanty.

During this brief conversation the princess's outcries had neither
ceased nor diminished in volume, and when Plums had thus unwillingly
departed, it was as if she redoubled her efforts.

Unfortunately, Joe had had no experience with "old Mis' Carter's kids,"
and when the child's face took on a purplish hue, he was thoroughly
alarmed, believing her to be dying.

"Don't, baby dear, don't! You'll kill yourself if you act this way! I'm
doin' the best I know how; but the trouble is, I can't tell what you
want!"

Entreaties were as useless as any of his other efforts to soothe, yet
he alternately begged her to be silent, and paced to and fro with her in
his arms, until, when it seemed to him that at least one whole night
must have passed since she awakened, the princess tired of her
exertions.

Then it was a tear-stained, grief-swollen face that he looked into, and
the childish sobs which escaped her lips gave him deeper pain than had
her most energetic outcries.

Believing her to be suffering severely, the big tears of sympathy rolled
down Joe's face as he told her again and again of all he would do
towards finding her mother when the day had come.

The princess was lying