YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART 



and he hadn't a bit of a collar, nor number, 

 and there wasn't a bit of money in his home 

 to buy his life when May-day came. 



For oh, it was such a pitiful home! Only 

 a couple of bare rooms, where a poor widow 

 and her boy sat sorrowfully thinking what 

 dreadful fate might befall dear little Gyp. 

 He was so dear to them, because Sissy had 

 loved him so. 



Sissy with her yellow curls and big black 

 eyes, and her sweet little w T hite face, that had 

 grown thinner and whiter, in the midst of 

 poverty and hardship, till one wild winter 

 midnight, when eased a bit from her rack- 

 ing cough, she had called softly: 



" Mamma, Robbie, don't cry Sissy isn't 

 'fraid! Don't you 'member, Robbie, the 

 picture windows we peeped and saw^ in the 

 new stone church, the day 'fore you got 

 hurt? The picture windows of the good 

 God-man carrying the little cold lammie in 

 his warm cloak, and the mamma-lamb 

 wasn't 'fraid to let him? 



"Didn't we see him, too, with poor little 



children, just like me, all cuddled in his big, 



strong arms ? Don't cry any more. He's a 



true God-papa. He'll take care of me, and 



48 



