Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 13506-h.htm or 13506-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/5/0/13506/13506-h/13506-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/5/0/13506/13506-h.zip) THE STORY OF PATSY by KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN Author of _The Birds' Christmas Carol_ [Illustration: "PATSY MINDING THE KENNETT BABY."] [Illustration: VIGNETTE.] To H.C.A. IN REMEMBRANCE OF GLADNESS GIVEN TO SORROWFUL LITTLE LIVES "The young lambs are bleating in the meadows, The young birds are chirping in the nest, The young fawns are playing with the shadows, The young flowers are blowing toward the west-- But the young; young children, O my brothers, They are weeping bitterly! They are weeping in the playtime of the others In the country of the free." MRS. BROWNING. The original Story of Patsy was written and sold some seven years ago for the benefit of the Silver Street Free Kindergartens in San Francisco. Now that it is for the first time placed in the hands of publishers, I have at their request added new material, so that the present story is more than double the length of the original brief sketch. K.D.W. New York, March, 1889. CONTENTS AND LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. * * * * * _"Patsy minding the Kennett Baby."_ _Frontispiece_ _Vignette._ _Title_ I. THE SILVER STREET KINDERGARTEN. II. PATSY COMES TO CALL. _"Here's an orange I brung yer!"_ III. TWO 'PRENTICE HANDS AT PHILANTHROPY. _Miss Helen._ IV. BEHIND THE SCENES. _"The boys at my side prattle together."_ _"Here is the hat!"_ V. I SEEK PATSY, AND MEET THE DUCHESS OF ANNA STREET. _"The Story of Victor."_ VI. A LITTLE "HOODLUM'S" VIRTUE KINDLES AT THE TOUCH OF JOY. _Carlotty Griggs "being a Butterfly."_ _Paulina's "good-mornings to Johnny Cass."_ VII. PATSY FINDS HIS THREE LOST YEARS. _"He sat silently by the window."_ _Tail Piece._ CHAPTER I. THE SILVER STREET KINDERGARTEN. "It makes a heaven-wide difference whether the soul of the child is regarded as a piece of blank paper, to be written upon, or as a living power, to be quickened by sympathy, to be educated by truth."