"What is _your_ name?" she asked him, suddenly.
"Tode Bryan."
"Tode? That's a queer name."
"'Spect that ain't all of it. There's some more, but I've forgot what
'tis," the boy replied, carelessly.
"And where's your home, Tode?"
"Home? Ain't got none. Never had none--no folks neither."
"But where do you live?"
"Oh, anywheres. When I'm flush, I sleeps at the Newsboys' Home, an'
when I ain't, I takes the softest corner I can find in a alley or on a
doorstep," was the indifferent reply.
Nan looked troubled.
"But I can't do that," she said. "I can't sleep in the street with
Little Brother."
"Why not?" questioned Tode, wonderingly.
"Oh because--girls can't do like that."
"Lots o' girls do."
"But--not nice girls, Tode," said Nan, wistfully.
"Well no, I don't 'spect they're nice girls. I don't know any girls 't
amount to much," replied Tode, disdainfully.
Nan flushed at his tone, as she answered,
"But what _can_ I do? Where can I go? Seems as if there ought to
be some place where girls like me could stay."
"That's so, for a fact," assented Tode, then he added, thoughtfully,
"The's one feller--mebbe you could stay where he lives. He's got a
mother, I know."
"Oh if I only could, Tode! I'd work _ever_ so hard," said Nan,
earnestly.
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