as it came up the
cross street, did not see or heed his sister until it was too late.
Johnny saw from within the shop, and started to hold back the child:
but fear lent wings to Matty's usually slow and faltering footsteps;
she heeded not or heard not his calls; and, before he could reach her,
the engine swung around the corner into the avenue, and the already so
sadly disfigured little form lay among the trampling hoofs and crushing
wheels.

Johnny himself had raised her, and carried her tenderly into his little
bower, where he laid her down among the flowers to breathe away the few
short moments of her waning life. Seeming to be conscious at once of
what was before her, she had made Tony understand by signs and one or
two faintly gasped words that she wanted me; and Jim, who had as usual
stopped in on his way from school, had hastened to bring me.

Sobered and sadly impressed, and yet with a feeling that Matty's
release was a blessing beyond all expression, Milly and I returned
home, with no heart, as may be supposed, for the entertainment for
which we had been bound when we were called to her.

CHAPTER XIV.

JIM'S CONFESSION.

Two days had passed, and poor little Matty had been laid to the rest
which knows no breaking; and all about Mrs. Petersen's rooms and the
little flower-shop had settled to its usual routine, save that Tony
still abode with the kind Germans, and that he tended alone both the
peanut-stand and his roaster. His parents had not yet returned, nor
have we to this day obtained, or indeed sought, any trace of them; all
concerned being only too glad that they have made no claim upon the
little lame boy. Tony, now no longer a peanut-vender, has been promoted
to the post of assistant and errand-boy to Johnny Petersen, who, with
his wife, treat the lad as if he were their own son, instead of a
little deserted waif cast by a merciful Providence into their kind
hands.

I had, happily,--or rather Edward had for me,--been able to rescue
Matty's beautiful tresses from the hands of the conscienceless barber,
who, when approached on the subject, demanded the most exorbitant price
for them; but finding that the circumstances of the first sale were
known to the gentleman, and being confronted with Tony, whom my brother
had taken with him and left outside till he should ascertain what
advance in price would be asked, he came down in his demands, and
parted with them at exactly three times the sum he