We started working together with the city administration to help orphans. When we saw the needs of the homeless children, that is where our focus turned and continues to this day.

We saw pictures of the city and that's when we started shaking and crying and wondering how we made it out of there, ... We only saw what was around us.

All our Russian friends told us we would never be able to help. But through determination and a strong desire, we were able to realize our dreams of building a shelter and helping hard-core street children leave street life.

I started shaking when I got up there. I started getting nervous then, when I saw him.

Mrs. Scatcherd raps Dutchy's knuckles several times with a long wooden ruler, though it seems to me a halfhearted penalty. He barely winces, then shakes his hands twice in the air and winks at me. Truly , there isn't much more she can do. Stripped of family and identity, fed meager rations, consigned to hard wooden seats until we are to be, as Slobbery Jack suggested, sold into slavery — our mere existence is punishment enough.

There," she said. She rocked him back and forth. "There, you foolish, beautiful boy who wants to change the world. There, there. And who could keep from loving you? Who could keep from loving a boy so brave and true?