street-venders of shoe-strings, pencils and cheap flowers, who to-night
were offering in their place tin toys, mistletoe and holly-boughs, he
pushed roughly out of his way; he snapped angrily at beggars who had the
temerity to accost him.

"Confound them! They ought to be run in by the police!"

A red-faced, collarless man fell into the same gait with him, and in a
cajoling tone began to mutter something of his distress.

"Be off. Go to the Associated Charities," snarled Livingstone, conscious
of the biting sarcasm of his speech.

"Go where, sir?"

"Go to the devil!"

The man stopped in his tracks.

A ragged, meagre boy slid in through the crowd just ahead of
Livingstone, to a woman who was toiling along with a large bundle.
Holding out a pinched hand, he offered to carry the parcel for her. The
woman hesitated.

--"For five cents," he pleaded.

She was about to yield, for the bundle was heavy. But the boy was just
in front of Livingstone and in his eagerness brushed against him.
Livingstone gave him a shove which sent him spinning away across the
sidewalk; the stream of passers-by swept in between them, and the boy