Lesson:

1. There! I have drawn the chairs into the right corners, and dusted the room nicely. How cold papa and mamma will be when they return from their long ride! It is not time to toast the bread yet, and I am tired of reading.


2. What shall I do? Somehow, I can't help thinking about the pale face of that little beggar girl all the time. I can see the glad light filling her eyes, just as plain as I did when I laid the dime in her little dirty hand.


3. How much I had thought of that dime, too! Grandpa gave it to me a whole month ago, and I had kept it ever since in my red box upstairs; but those sugar apples looked so beautiful, and were so cheap—only a dime apiece—that I made up my mind to have one.


4. I can see her—the beggar girl, I mean—as she stood there in front of the store, in her old hood and faded dress, looking at the candies laid all in a row. I wonder what made me say, 'Little girl, what do you want?'


5. How she stared at me, just as if nobody had spoken kindly to her before. I guess she thought I was sorry for her, for she said, so earnestly and sorrowfully, 'I was thinking how good one of those gingerbread rolls would taste. I haven't had anything to eat today.'


6. Now, I thought to myself, 'Mary Williams, you have had a good breakfast and a good dinner this day, and this poor girl has not had a mouthful. You can give her your dime; she needs it a great deal more than you do.'


7. I could not resist that little girl's sorrowful, hungry look—so I dropped the dime right into her hand, and, without waiting for her to speak, walked straight away. I'm so glad I gave her the dime, if I did have to go without the apple lying there in the window, and looking just like a real one.





DEFINITIONS


1. Toast: To scorch until brown by the heat of a fire.


3. Cheap: Low in price.


3. Apiece: Each.


4. Hood: A soft covering for the head.


4. Faded: Having lost freshness of color.


5. Stared: Looked earnestly.


5. Sorrowfully: Full of sadness.


5. Gingerbread: A kind of sweet cake flavored with ginger.