A small child's voice called out from the alley between two houses: "Who wants a Canada flag? Who wants a Canada flag?"

Michelle and I looked down the alley as we walked past with our dog, Moxie. A small boy had a piece of paper wrapped around his eyes like a blindfold. "Who wants a Canada flag?" he yelled once more. I assumed he was playing a game with other kids. I was wrong. It turned out he was alone.

When we were a few feet away, we heard a voice behind us. "Do you want a Canada flag?" he asked.

Michelle and I looked back and saw the boy. Then we exchanged a look. "Sure!" we said.

"Wait here," he said. "I'm gonna go get crayons. Wait here."

We sat down on the curb. The boy ran into a nearby house. A few minutes later, he was back. He had two pieces of paper -- one with a flag on it he must have drawn earlier, one blank -- and a single red crayon. He sat down on the sidewalk and started scribbling. First the bar on the right, then the bar on the left.

"I'm gonna make 'em real fat," he said.

I was wondering how he was going to manage the complicated maple-leaf. That's when he held out the crayon to Michelle and said, "Can you draw a leaf for me?"

Michelle said, "I'm going to cheat," and traced a maple-leaf on to the blank sheet using the other drawing the boy had. When she was done, he took the drawing back and filled in the leaf with a scribble, making the leaf bigger, uglier, and more charming.

"Do you live in a house or an apartment?" the boy wanted to know. "Because if you live in an apartment you can put the flag in the window. It's Canada's birthday soon."

"We live in an apartment," we told him.

"I don't live here," he said. "I'm visiting Jack."

"Oh," we said.

"Can you write your name on the back of the flag for me?" I asked him. "Artists should sign their work. That way you know who made it."

By this point, the crayon needed to be unwrapped a little. Michelle tore some paper off. On a whim, she held the paper out to Moxie, our dog. Moxie chewed on it for a while, then swallowed. Josiah -- for that was the kid's name -- was impressed.

"Can I feed her some?" he asked.

"Sure," Michelle said, "but only a little."

Josiah tore off a tiny scrap and held it out to Moxie. The dog licked the paper from Josiah's fingers, chewed it, and swallowed.

Michelle wrote the date on the back of the drawing, we thanked Josiah, and said goodbye. He was reluctant to let us go.

"I'm going to sit out here and sell more flags," he said. "When people walk by, I'm gonna ask them if they want one."

"Are you going to ask them for money?" I asked.

Josiah shuffled his feet, and smiled. I don't think he quite understood money just yet. He was very young.

"Goodbye!" we said.

"Goodbye!" Josiah yelled. Then, when we were ten feet away, he yelled it again. "Goodbye!"