Russ saw Mr. North, the nice old gentleman who lived over the way,
staring out of his window at this surprising fact: Aunt Jo allowing a
beggar to enter at her front door! Still, Mr. North, as well as the
rest of the neighbors, had decided before this that almost anything
astonishing could happen while the six little Bunkers were visiting
their Aunt Jo in Boston's Back Bay district.

"Here he is, Mother," said Russ, entering the hall with the colored boy.

The other children had come downstairs now and all understood just what
Margy and Mun Bun had tried to do for the stranger. Mother Bunker smiled
kindly upon the wretched lad, even if Aunt Jo did look on a little
doubtfully from the background.

"We understand all about it, boy," Mother Bunker said. "The little folks
only wanted to help you; and so do we. Do you live in Boston?"

"Me, Ma'am? No, Ma'am! I lives a long way souf of dis place. Dat I do!"

"And have you no friends here?"

"Friends? Whar'd I get friends?" he demanded, complainingly. "Dey ain't
no friends for boys like me up Norf yere."

"Oh! What a story!" exclaimed Aunt Jo. "I know people must be just as
kind in Boston as they are in the South."

"Mebbe dey is, lady," said the colored boy, looking somewhat frightened
because of Aunt Jo's vigorous speech. "Mebbe dey is; but dey hides it