Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1879 — Little Red Noses. [ARTICLE]

Little Red Noses.

From th* Detroit Free Preu. How that north wind whistled and stung the other day! It was the first signal of a long, dreary winter, and even men in overcoats turned sharp corners to get out of the biting blast. Two children, a boy and a girl, neither over nine years old, stood shivering in a doorway on Monroe avenue, wishing to go on to their lonely home, but dreading the wind. They crept closer and closer to each other, and their chins quivered and their noses grew red as they grew colder. Hundreds of men and women passed up and down without care, but by and by along came a whistling, jovial lad of fourteen, who was swingiug his bootrblack’s kit by a strap and picking up the steps of some clog-dance. He saw the shfveriug bits of humanity where others were blind, and halting before them with a "ciig-jigger-rigger" of his heels and a toss of his box, he called out. "Kin I borry them ’ere chins o’yours bout an hour?" “Yes, ma’am," demurely replied the girl. "I kin, eh?—ho! ho! ho! That’s' a give-away on me! Be your chickens eold?" cold?’, "Yes. ma’am" she answered again. "Ana that ’ere cub is your brother, I s’spose? Well when I’m cold I git warm. What do you do—freeze?" "Yes, ma’am, if you please," she replied. "If I please—ha! ha! ha!—’nother give-away on me! Well, you autumn leaves comt along with me. I hain’t got nr influence on the weather, but I kin sr.i 41 a hot stove as fur off as the next si;iner in this town. Come right over to this store." He led the way across the street and nto the office where there was a fire. He had placed chairs for them when u man camj in from a back room and said: "What do you children want here?" "Want some o’ this waste hotness," bluntly replied the shiner. "These 'ere cubs is nigh froze to death, and I brought ’em here to thaw out." "And we won’t eyen look at you, nor cough, nor sneeze 1" added the little girl, as she saw a frown on the man’s face.

“That’srichness; there’s innocence!’’ laughed the shiner, and the man’s face cleared and he poked up the fire and said they could sit nearer. , “S’pose me’n you chip in and buy ’em sumthin’ to stay their stomachs?’’ suggested Shiner all of a sudden. “Tell you what, some of the children iu this town don't have a square meal any mor’n you’n me were diamonds. Little gal, are you hungry?” “Yes, ma’am,-if you won’t be mad at us,” she replied. The man stood irresolute, but Shiner went down into his pocket, rattled around and said: “Here's ten cents that says they are hungry!” “Well, I’ll give as much,” replied the man. ‘.‘You go and buy something and they can sit here aud eat it ” Shiner bought crackers and cheese, and the children ate until he felt obliged to say: “Now you cub go a leetle bit slow and save the rest for supper. Kin ye find the way home alone?” “Yes, ma’am.” “And do you feel as warm as ’tatar bugs rolled up in wool?” “Yes, ma’am.” “All right, then. We’re dead to rights-obliged to this man, and I’ll black bis hoots besides. You’d better run along home now. What ye goln’ to tell yer mother?” “I’ll tell her we come awful near going to heaven, and mv little brother he thanks you, too, and"now we’ll go, and—and thank you, ma'am, ever so many times; good bye!” .The man looked after ihera through the window with softer lines in his race than had been there for months. The boy stood outside on tlio walk and watched until they had turned a corner, and then exclaimed: “Phew! but I most feel that I was ingaiged to that gal?”