: Harper's Young People June 6 1882 An Illustrated Weekly by Various - Children's periodicals American

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"SCRAP."

BY MRS. JOHN LILLIE.

"Come here, boys," said Mary Grey, closing the dining-room door very softly, and calling Ben and Lewis to her. Mary was their elder sister. She seemed a great deal older than the boys, for Ben was only nine, and Lewis six, while Mary was seventeen.

"A dear little brother is upstairs waiting to see you," said Mary. "And if you are good boys, nurse says you may hold him for a few moments in your arms."

Ben and Lewis began capering about with delight; but they followed Mary upstairs, very much impressed by the idea that they had a new member of the family to meet--a tiny wee boy, all their own little brother.

In Dr. Grey's house there is a big, sunny, peaceful room fronting an old-fashioned garden, and there it was that the little brother lay waiting in a pink and white cradle. Ben and Lewis went in very softly. They were very much afraid of old Mrs. Newman, the nurse; they were afraid the baby would cry; and yet there was in their minds a general impression that the new boy in the family would put them out of power. But at sight of the baby all such fears vanished. Such a mite of a thing! A dear little black head, a pair of bright, blinking eyes, doubled-up pink fists, and a dimple in one cheek. It was while the two boys stood looking at him for the first time that he was given the name which always clung to him in spite of his being christened Philip.

I don't know just why it was, but from that hour no one seemed to think of calling him anything but "Scrap." Perhaps it was because he had such a dear little face that every one wanted to give him a pet name. Perhaps it was because he was so slimly built, and was always such a wee thing in spite of rosy cheeks and merry ways. But in any case the name clung to him.

When his mother died he was only a baby, but she already had called him by his nickname, and it was Mary, I think, who passionately declared he should know no other.

Ben and Lewis took Scrap in charge immediately. They thought it great fun to hold the little big-eyed baby, and feel that he was younger and weaker than they. But yet Scrap was a real boy. As soon as he could understand any sort of fun, which was very early, they taught him all their games, and they made him what they called their "Regiment." Ben and Lewis were Colonel and Captain of Scrap; and Scrap himself was well enough pleased with his subordinate position. Sometimes they played at what they called "Marching against the North Pole," and it was a curious thing that they always chose such very hot weather for this particular game. They wore blankets, and counterpanes, and old seal-skin caps, and they sat on the nursery stairs, covered with rugs, pretending they were in sleighs, on their way to the North Pole, while the perspiration streamed from their faces. It was usually Ben who, at a given moment, impersonated a singular character known as the "Iceberg Man," and who upset the whole company. Scrap, weighed down by bedding, generally fell asleep during this performance, and I must say that Ben and Lewis rather languished toward the end of it; but they never tired of playing at that game over and over again, until cold weather came.

Scrap had the measles about this time, and while he lay in bed Ben and Lewis occupied themselves writing bulletins of his progress, which were pinned to the dining-room door every morning, and were intended to be very helpful in their character. Scrap was by no means dangerously ill, but his seclusion filled the boys with a sense of horror. One of these bulletins ran as follows:

"No chainge for the better. Pulse is lite and he cries a good deal. Mary says he's got to be made to keep still."

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