The Boy with the Leaking Boot is a recurring theme of statues that appear throughout the United States. The life-sized statue, often about 4 feet tall, depicts a young boy with a bare right foot, holding up and inspecting the leaks on his right boot. The statue isn’t complete with an actual leaky boot, hence the statue is almost always a fountain with water emerging from numerous holes on the toe of the boot. There are at least 25 documented examples, and probably hundreds more. Yet, nobody knows who the boy is, and why does he hold aloft his leaking boot.

Some believed that the boy was a real Italian newspaper seller who drowned. Others said he was a Civil War drummer boy who brought water to wounded men in his leaky boot. Still others thought he was a brave little fireman who used his boot in a bucket brigade when there weren't enough buckets to go around.

An old postcard shows the Boy and the Boot, in Hershey, Pennsylvania.