TIM'S KIT.

Otago Witness, Issue 1905, 25 May 1888, Page 34

TIM'S KIT.

Warm hearts are sometimes found under ragged jackets, as shown by the following incident. A kit is a box of tools, or whatever outfit is needed in a particular branch bi business : — It surprised the shiners and newsboys around the post office the other day to see •' Limpy Tim," come among them in a quiet way, and hear him say, " Boys, I want to sell my. kit. Here's two brushes, a hull box oE blacking, a good, stout box; and the outfit goes for two shillin's." " Goin' away, ,Tim? " queried one. , "Not 'zackly, boys ; but I want a shilling 1 the awfullest kind just now," . " Goin' on 'skursion ! " asked another. " Not to-day ; but I must have a shilling," he answered. One of the lads passed over the change, and took the kit ; and Tim walked' straight to the counting room of a daily paper, put down his money, and said, " I guess I kin write if you give me a pencil." With slow-moving fingers he wrote a death notice. It went into the paper almost as he wrote it, but you might not have seen it. He wrote — Died— Litul Ted— of scarlet fever ; aged three yere Funeral to-morrow, gone up to Hevin ; left won brother. "Was it your brother ? " asked the cashier. Tim tried to brace up, but he couldn't. The big tears came up, his chin quivered, and he pointed to the counter and gasped, " I—lI — I had to sell my kit to do it, b — but he had -his arms around my neck when he d— died !" He hurried away home, but the news went to the boys, and they gathered together in a group and talked. Tim had not been home an hour before a barefooted boy left the kit on the doorstep, and in the box wa3 a bouquet of flowers which had been purohased in the market by pennies contributed by the crowd of ragged but big-hearted boys. Did God ever make a, heart which would not respond if the right chord was touched ?