Cirrus@Austlit

Boy's friendhsip. A street urchin in Melbourne champions a small boy against a bully and friendship grows, the boy often sharing his food with his hungry ragged companion. At Christmas the urchin steals some food for a feast but his friend tells the tale of Jesus and awakens his conscience ... Very strong characterisation of the urchin, at least early on when the narrator described him affectionately 'nothing human [is] foreign to myself', but weakens with the introduction of the boy's deferral to the refinement of his new friend - and becomes sentimental with the subject of Jesus. (PB)