matter, and finally
made out that she had been to some sale at a farmhouse near, where a
certain large blanket had "gone for" five shillings. That she had
scraped five shillings together, and had intended to bid for it, but
had (with eminent stupidity) managed just to be out of the way when
the blanket was sold; and that it had gone for the very sum she could
have afforded, to another woman who would only part with it for six
and sixpence--eighteenpence more than the price she had paid for it.

The poor woman wept, and said she had had hard work to "raise" the
five shillings, and could not possibly find one and sixpence more. And
yet she did want the blanket badly, for she had a boy sick in bed, and
his throat was so bad--he suffered a deal from the cold, and there
wasn't a decent "rag of a blanket" in her house. I did not quite
follow her long story, but I gathered that one and sixpence would put
an end to her troubles, and at once offered to fetch her the money.

"Where do you live?" I asked.

"The white cottage just beyond the gate, love," she answered.

"I will bring you the money," said I. For to say the truth, I was
rather pompous and important about my charitable deeds, and did not
dislike playing the part of Sir Bountiful in the cottages. In this
case, too, it was a kindness not to take the woman back to the hall,
for she had left the sick child alone; and when I arrived at the
cottage with the money he complained bitterly at the idea of her
leaving him again to get the blanket.

"Let me go a minute, love, and I'll fetch Mrs. Taylor to sit with thee
till I get the blanket."

"I don't want a blanket," fretted the child; "I be too hot as 'tis. I
don't want to be 'lone."

"If you'll only be a minute, I'll stop with him," said I; and there
was some kindness in the offer, for I was really afraid of the boy
with his heavy angry eyes and fever petulance. The woman gladly
accepted it, and hurried off, despite the child's fretful tears, and
his refusing to see in "the young gentleman's" condescension the
honour which his mother pointed out. No doubt she only meant to be "a
minute," and Mrs. Taylor's dwelling was, to my knowledge, near; but I
suppose she had to tell, and her friends to hear, the whole history of
the sale, her disappointment and subsequent relief, as a preliminary
measure. After which it is probable that Mrs. Taylor had to look at
her pie in the oven, or attend to some similar and pressing domestic