“‘Did you come begging?’ I asked.

“’No, ma’am, I came for some things Mrs. Grover’s got for us.  She told me to.  I don’t beg.’  And up rose the sopping thing with great dignity.

“So I asked her to sit down, and ran up to call Mrs. Grover.  She was busy with Grandpa just then, and when I went back to my lunch there sat my lady with her arms folded, water dripping out of the toes of her old boots as they hung down from the high chair, and the biggest blue eyes I ever saw fixed upon the cake and oranges on the table.  I gave her a piece, and she sighed with rapture, but only picked at it till I asked if she didn’t like it.

“’Oh yes, ‘m, it’s elegant!  Only I was wishin’ I could take it to Caddy and Tot, if you didn’t mind.  They never had frostin’ in all their lives, and I did once.’

“Of course I put up a little basket of cake and oranges and figs, and while Lotty feasted, we talked.  I found that their mother washed dishes all day in a restaurant over by the Albany Station, leaving the three children alone in the room they have on Berry Street.  Think of that poor thing going off before light these winter mornings to stand over horrid dishes all day long, and those three scraps of children alone till night!  Sometimes they had a fire, and when they hadn’t they stayed in bed.  Broken food and four dollars a week was all the woman got, and on that they tried to live.  Good Mrs. Grover happened to be nursing a poor soul near Berry Street last summer, and used to see the three little things trailing round the streets with no one to look after them.

“Lotty is nine, though she looks about six, but is as old as most girls of fourteen, and takes good care of ‘the babies,’ as she calls the younger ones.  Mrs. Grover went to see them, and, though a hard-working creature, did all she could for them.  This winter she has plenty of time to sew, for Grandpapa needs little done for him except at night and morning, and that kind woman spent her own money, and got warm flannel and cotton and stuff, and made each child a good suit.  Lotty had come for hers, and when the bundle was in her arms she hugged it close, and put up her little face to kiss Grover so prettily, I felt that I wanted to do something too.  So I hunted up Min’s old waterproof and rubbers, and a hood, and sent Lotty home as happy as a queen, promising to go and see her.  I did go, and there was my work all ready for me.  Oh, girls! such a bare, cold room, without a spark of fire, and no food but a pan of bits of pie and bread and meat, not fit for any one to eat, and in the bed, with an old carpet for cover, lay the three children.  Tot and Caddy cuddled in the warmest place, while Lotty, with her little blue hands, was trying to patch up some old stockings with bits of cotton.  I didn’t know how to begin, but Lotty did, and I just took her orders; for that wise little woman told me where to buy a bushel of coal and some kindlings, and milk and meal, and all I wanted.  I worked