Harper's Young People, June 6, 1882 / An Illustrated Weekly

ome here, boys, said Mary Grey, closing the dining-room door very softly, and calling Ben and Lewis to her. Mary was their elder sister. She seemed a great deal older than the boys, for Ben was only nine, and Lewis six, while Mary was seventeen.
A dear little brother is upstairs waiting to see you, said Mary. And if you are good boys, nurse says you may hold him for a few moments in your arms.
Ben and Lewis began capering about with delight; but they followed Mary upstairs, very much impressed by the idea that they had a new member of the family to meet—a tiny wee boy, all their own little brother.
In Dr. Grey's house there is a big, sunny, peaceful room fronting an old-fashioned garden, and there it was that the little brother lay waiting in a pink and white cradle. Ben and Lewis went in very softly. They were very much afraid of old Mrs. Newman, the nurse; they were afraid the baby would cry; and yet there was in their minds a general impression that the new boy in the family would put them out of power. But at sight of the baby all such fears vanished. Such a mite of a thing! A dear little black head, a pair of bright, blinking eyes, doubled-up pink fists, and a dimple in one cheek. It was while the two boys stood looking at him for the first time that he was given the name which always clung to him in spite of his being christened Philip.
Oh, Mary, Lewis exclaimed, in a soft tone, I sha'n't mind him —he is only a little Scrap!
I don't know just why it was, but from that hour no one seemed to think of calling him anything but Scrap. Perhaps it was because he had such a dear little face that every one wanted to give him a pet name. Perhaps it was because he was so slimly built, and was always such a wee thing in spite of rosy cheeks and merry ways. But in any case the name clung to him.
When his mother died he was only a baby, but she already had called him by his nickname, and it was Mary, I think, who passionately declared he should know no other.