Lost and Found

 While walking this morning, I noticed a child's Superman output, perhaps a pajama set hung up on a post a few blocks from here. It appears to be for a child of about four, and I can think of a neighborhood boy with a taste for superhero outfits. But it would be a hike for a four-year-old. And how does one lose an item like this outside in cold weather?

Over the last few weeks I have found

• A child's knit glove. I picked it up from the street, posted a notice to the neighborhood listserv, and heard nothing back.
• A child's mitten. This I placed on a stake used to guy up a tree. It stayed there for a while.
• A baby blanket, found while shoveling snow. This I was able to return, for the family that had dropped it on leaving the Orthodox Christmas Vigil liturgy parked a few houses down on Sunday.

There is also a child's boot at about eye level in the branches of a small tree down the street. I have the notion that I've seen it before, may even have suggested to someone that the tree was a good place for it. But I don't know this is so.

  As a child, I certainly lost plenty of objects. As a parent, I was astonished at the quantity of lost items the first time I dug through a school's lost-and-found box. I wish I could say that the experience reformed me, but I have certainly gone through some pairs of gloves since. I don't think I lose them outside, though.