I
saw the flush that came to the boy's face. The other five boys wanted
to get at my boots, but this one had got at my heart, and I made up my
mind he should get at my boots as well, and straightway made known my
decision. This at once brought forth a volley of jibes and jeers and
cutting remarks. "Oh, 'His Royal Highness' gets the job, and he will
be prouder and meaner than ever, he will. Say, mister, he's too proud
to live, he is. He thinks he owns the earth, he does."

The flush deepened on the boy's face, and I drove his assailants away
ere I let him begin his work.

"Now, my boy, take your time, and you shall have extra pay for the job;
pardon me for laughing at you; don't mind those boys, but tell me why
they call you 'His Royal Highness?'"

He gazed up in my face a moment with a hungry look, and I said, "You
can trust me."

"Well, sir, they thinks I'm proud and stuck-up, 'cause I won't pitch
pennies and play 'craps' with 'em, and they says I'm stingy and trying
to own the earth, 'cause I won't chew tobacco and drink beer, or buy
the stuff for 'em. They says my father must be a king, for I wears
such fashionable clothes, and puts on so many airs, but that I run away
from home 'cause I wanted to boss my father and be king myself. So
they calls me 'His Royal Highness.'"

There was a tremble in his voice as he paused a moment, and then he
continued:

"If I ever had a father, I never seen him, and if, I had a mother, I
wish someone would tell me who she was. How can a feller be proud and
stuck-up who ain't got no father and no mother, and no name only Joe?
They calls me stingy 'cause I'm saving all the money I can, but I ain't
saving it for myself--I'm saving it for Jessie."

"Is Jessie your sister?" I asked.

"No, sir; I ain't got no relatives."

"Perhaps, then, she is your sweetheart," I said.

Again he looked up in my face and said very earnestly, "Did you ever
know a boot-black without any name to have an angel for a sweetheart?"

His eyes were full of tears, and I made no answer, though I might have
told him I had found a boot-black who had a big, warm heart even if he
had no sweetheart. Very abruptly he said:

"You came over on the boat; what kind of a land is it over across the
river?"

"It is very pleasant in the country," I replied.

"Is it a land of pure delight, where saints immortal reign?"

Having just come from New Jersey where the infamous race track, and the
more infamous r