14. O'er the eyes of the listening fathers There floated a gracious mist;

15.

And oh, how the tender mothers

Those desolate darlings kissed!

"You have given your tears," said the preacher; "Heart-alms we should none despise;

But the open palm, my children,

Is more than the weeping eyes!"

16. Then followed a swift collection,
From the altar steps to the door,
Till the sum of two thousand rubles
The vergers had counted o'er.

17.

So

you see that the unmailed letter
Had somehow gone to its goal,

And more than three copecks gathered
To purchase for Leeze a roll!

- PAUL H. HAYNE.

LXXXIX. LITTLE GAVROCHE

I

1. Years ago there might have been noticed on the streets of Paris a boy of eleven or twelve years of age, who was known by the name of Little Gavroche. This child was dressed in a man's trousers

and a woman's jacket, in which some kind persons had clothed him out of charity.

2. Little Gavroche was never so comfortable anywhere as in the street. He was a noisy, pale, active, sharp, impudent lad, with a cunning and sickly look. He came and went, sang, played at hopscotch, searched the gutters, stole a little, but gayly, like cats and sparrows, laughed when he was called a scamp, and felt angry when he was called a thief. He had no bed, no bread, no fire, no love; but he was happy because he was free.

3. One evening in the early spring, when the breezes were blowing sharply, so sharply that January seemed to have returned, and the citizens had put on their cloaks again, little Gavroche, still shivering gayly under his rags, was standing as if in ecstasy in front of a hairdresser's shop. He was adorned with a woolen shawl, picked up no one knew where, of which he had made a muffler. Little Gavroche appeared to be lost in admiration of a waxen image of a bride, with a wreath of orange blossoms in her hair, which revolved between two lamps in the window. But in reality he was watching the shop to see whether he could not snatch a cake of soap, which he would afterward sell to a barber in the suburbs.

4. While Gavroche was examining the bride, the window, and the soap, he saw two boys, very decently

dressed, both younger than himself, timidly open the door and enter the shop. They both spoke together, asking for charity. Their words were unintelligible, because sobs choked the voice of the younger boy and cold made the teeth of the elder rattle. The barber without laying down his razor, drove them into the street, and closed the door.

5. The two lads set off again, crying. A cloud had come up in the meanwhile, and rain began to fall. Little Gavroche ran up to them.

6. "What is the matter with you?" he asked. 7. "We don't know where to sleep," the elder replied.

8. "Is that all?" said Gavroche,

"Is that any

thing to cry about, simpletons?" And assuming an accent of tender care and gentle protection, he said:

9.

"Come with me, boys."

10. “Yes, sir,” said the elder boy.

II. And the two children followed him as they would have done an archbishop, and left off crying.

12. As they went along the street, Gavroche noticed a little girl shivering in a gateway.

13. "Poor girl," said Gavroche. Here, take this." And taking off the good woolen garment which he had around his neck, he threw it over the thin, bare shoulders of the beggar girl, where the

muffler became once again a shawl. The little girl looked at him with an astonished air and received the shawl in silence.

14. The shower, redoubling its passion, poured down. "Hello!" Gavroche shouted. "What's the meaning of this? It is raining again." And he went on, shivering with the cold. "No matter," he said, as he took a glance at the beggar girl crouching under her shawl, "she's got something to cover her, anyway."

15. The two children limped after him, and as they passed a baker's shop Gavroche turned round. "By the by, boys, have you dined?"

16. "We have had nothing to eat, sir, since early this morning," the elder answered.

17. Gavroche stopped and for some minutes searched through his rags. At length he raised his head with an air of triumph. "Calm yourselves; here is supper for three;" and he drew a coin from one of his pockets. Without giving the lads time to feel amazed, he pushed them both before him into the baker's shop, and laid his money on the counter, exclaiming, Bread for three!"

18. When the bread was cut, Gavroche said to the two boys, "Eat away." At the same time he gave each of them a lump of bread. There was one piece smaller than the two others, and he took

that for himself.

Then he said, "Let us return to the street," and they started again in the direction of the Bastile. From time to time, as they passed lighted shops, the younger boy stopped to see what time it was.

II

19. Some years back there might have been seen in the southeastern corner of the square of the Bastile a quaint monument. It was an elephant, forty feet high, constructed of carpentry and masonry. On its back it bore a castle which resembled a house, once painted green by some plasterer, and now painted black by the rain and by time.

20. In this deserted corner of the square, the wide forehead of the elephant, its trunk, its tusks, its castle, its enormous back, and its four feet, like columns, produced at night a surprising and terrible outline. No one knew what it meant, and no passerby looked at it. It was falling in ruins, and each season, plaster becoming detached from its flanks made horrible wounds upon it. It was to this huge structure that Gavroche led the two urchins.

21. On coming near the colossus, Gavroche, understanding the effect which the very great may produce on the very little, said, "Don't be frightened, little ones."