Jerrys Reward | Page 4

and nearer shouting their jibes and their jeers, when he quickly turned around and facing them began his speech:
"Don't fear me, chil--" was all the further he got when the rosy cheeks became as white as sheets and such scampering and rushing over one another you never saw in all your life.
After that it was three whole days before a single one of them was bold enough to come even in sight when he was bending over his work, and he missed them so that he resolved never to attempt any conversation with them again as long as he lived.
CHAPTER IV.
HARD TIMES
Things went on in this manner for some time. Then the hot summer was over and the green leaves died and fell to the ground with a rustle. All the children except the babies started to school. It became too cold to play out-of-doors in the afternoon, and soon the days got so short that there were no afternoons, and the children forgot it ever had been summer at all.
If a body had not already known it, he would never have guessed that the row of houses on one side of Jefferson Square contained twenty-eight children toasting their toes by blazing fires.
We should say twenty-one, for the entire family of outcasts had moved from the square to a more congenial neighbourhood, and Mrs. Paddy lost the only friends she had. Instead of the bright faces smiling and nodding to her every time they went in or out the front door, an ugly white card, with "For Rent" in big black letters, stared at her all day, reminding her sadly of the friends who were gone.
[Illustration: "ALL THE CHILDREN EXCEPT THE BABIES STARTED TO SCHOOL."]
Paddy noticed her looking a little forlorn one morning, so he said:
"The cold weather doesn't agree with you, Peggy; there's too much air coming through the window cracks. I'll just move your chair away from it, and as close to the fire as may be."
He had to leave her alone a great deal those days, for bread was high and work scarce. To get either, a man had to start early so as to be handy for any odd jobs that came his way.
Peggy was sometimes so lonely that she missed even the naughty children, for in summer when they played on the common she could hear their young voices and it was company for her. Now all she could see was a bare brown waste with never a child in sight.
When Paddy was there bending over his ash heaps she didn't care, for every little while he would look up from his work, and wave his hand, and that was all she wanted.
Things got very desperate with the Paddys. Money became so scarce that they couldn't buy coal, but had to use half-burned cinders from the common instead. Peggy declared that they made a "real hot fire," and she would joke about their large coal cellar--meaning the common--"that never got empty--only fuller and fuller."
Paddy would come in shivering and shaking in his threadbare coat.
"And are you frozen entirely?" she would ask.
And he would answer: "I was mortal cold, but the sight of your gentle face has warmed my blood. Faith, it's better than all the fires!"
Whenever the sun came out she would make him take her to the window where she could warm herself in its rays. When her husband was working at the ash piles she would wave to him.
"On those days," said Paddy, "I always have luck. The people throw out more rags, and the cinders are in big lumps and only half burned."
Whenever he made a good find he waved his hand to her, but one day he waved both hands and his cap, and she knew he had been unusually fortunate.
He came straight in to show her. He had found a big silver dollar. It was tarnished and black from the flames, but it was a good one with a true ring.
"Whose can it be, I wonder!" exclaimed Peggy.
"If I knew I'd have to take it back," answered Paddy, "but, unfortunately, people don't often leave their visiting cards on their ash heaps."
This was not all. The very day after he found the dollar, Peggy, from her window, saw more frantic waving.
This time it was a silver spoon!
"I can find the owner of that, I'm sure," says Paddy. And he made the rounds of all the houses in the neighbourhood to see if they were missing any spoons, but nobody claimed it.
Peggy cleaned it and made it shine like new. At first she didn't like to use it--it was so beautiful--but her husband persuaded her that as long as they couldn't sell it, seeing that the owner might be found some day, she had better get the good of it. So she