“What’s the matter?”
The boy’s breast heaved and he choked, unable to answer, bent his sunburnt head on Stella’s hand and burst into strangling tears.
She stroked his hair, and at length he sobbed:
“They’ve got my big brother in here—locked—up—in—a—cage! They’re going to kill him, and he ain’t got nobody but me to help him. I ain’t nothing but a little boy. I can’t get no money, and I can’t do nothing. Oh, me! oh, me!”
He bowed again and sobbed as though his heart would break.
Stella slipped her arm around his neck and placed a rose in his hand.
“Hush dear, I’ll be your friend and his. I’ve got money. I’ll help you—give the rose to your brother and come to see me.”
“Will you, Miss?” he cried, leaping up with joy. “Make’em let me go in with you and I’ll tell him!”
Stella took him by the hand and led him into the jail.
When the jailor frowned at the boy, she said with a smile: