BAFT-BUILDING. 65 
giving the negro dialect with such excellent effect as to 
make the boys laugh heartily at some points, and to bring 
tears to their eyes at others. 
Lex had been busy all day, partly in efforts to keep out 
from under customers' feet, partly in running errands. 
When he turned away from the store at night, and started 
for home, he was very tired. 
" Hi ! " chattered Lex, as he pattered along the side- 
walk, "ain't dis yere cold, jes' ! " 
It was cold, and was growing colder. The sun had 
muffled itself in a bank of clouds, as it hurried off to a 
warmer climate, turning a very cold shoulder indeed 
upon Lex and his surroundings. As soon as the sun 
was well out of the way, presto ! up dodged the sly 
breezes that had kept quiet since morning, and, spying 
the black boy on his way home, made for him with 
eager glee. 
They could not do much with his hair, to be sure, it 
curled so tightly and closely to his round head ; but, to 
make up for that, they pinched his ears, and pulled off 
his tattered hat, tweaked his fingers and toes, whooped 
and hallooed at him, and threw dust in his astonished 
black eyes, until he felt as if he were in the paws of a 
sort of great Polar tiger, playing with him cruelly and 
breathing on him from her icy jaws. 
So the wind kept on blowing, harder and harder, and 
the mercury in the thermometers sought to hide itself in 
