wamps.

It was late when Titee came home, to such a home as it was, and he had
but illy performed his errand; so his mother beat him and sent him to
bed supperless. A sharp strap stings in cold weather, and a long walk
in the teeth of a biting wind creates a keen appetite. But if Titee
cried himself to sleep that night, he was up bright and early next
morning, had been to mass, devoutly kneeling on the cold floor, blowing
his fingers to keep them warm, and was home almost before the rest of
the family were awake.

There was evidently some great matter of business on the young man's
mind, for he scarcely ate his breakfast, and left the table soon,
eagerly cramming the remainder of his meal in his pockets.

"Ma foi, but what now?" mused his mother, as she watched his little
form sturdily trudging the track in the face of the wind; his head,
with the rimless cap thrust close on the shock of black hair, bent low;
his hands thrust deep in the bulging pockets.

"A new live play-toy h'it may be," ventured the father; "he is one
funny chil."

The next day Titee was late for school. It was something unusual, for
he was always the first on hand to fix some plan of mechanism to make
the teacher miserable. She looked reprovingly at him this morning,
when he came in during arithmetic class, his hair all wind-blown, his
cheeks rosy from a hard fight with the sharp blasts. But he made up
for his tardiness by his extreme goodness all day; just think, Titee
did not even eat once before noon, a something unparalleled in the
entire previous history of his school life.

When the lunch-hour came, and all the yard was a scene of feast and
fun, one of the boys found him standing by a post, disconsolately
watching a ham sandwich as it rapidly disappeared down the throat of a
sturdy, square-headed little fellow.

"Hello, Edgar," he said, "what you got fer lunch?"

"Nothin'," was the mournful reply.

"Ah, why don't you stop eatin' in school, fer a change? You don't ever
have nothin' to eat."

"I didn't eat to-day," said Titee, blazing up.

"You did!"

"I tell you I didn't!" and Titee's hard little fist planted a
punctuation mark on his comrade's eye.

A fight in the schoolyard! Poor Titee was in disgrace again. Still,
in spite of his battered appearance, a severe scolding from the
principal, lines to write, and a further punishment from his mother,
Titee scarcely remained for his dinner, but was off down the railroad
tr