nd mother should be so, any way,
considering the saving in hosiers' and shoemakers' bills. But in the
case of my poor little cripple it was pitiful; for the weather was so
cold, and the thin legs and feet so red, and the poor twisted-up one
looked so specially unhappy.

"'Poor little boy,' I exclaimed to the lady I was with; 'just look at
him. Why he has hopped all across the street merely for the pleasure of
looking at the nice things in that window!'

"For by this time the boy was staring in with all his eyes at a
confectioner's close to where we were passing.

"'Give him a penny, do,' said my friend, 'or go into the shop and buy
him something.'

"We went close up to the boy, and I touched him on the shoulder. He
looked up--such a pretty, happy face he had--and I said to him--

"'Well, my man, which shall I give you, a penny or a cookie?'

"He smiled brightly, but you would never guess what he answered. Like
our 'honest little man' here," and Auntie patted Baby's head as she
spoke, "he held out his hand--not a dirty hand 'considering'--and said
cheerfully--

"'Plenty to buy some wi', thank ye, mem;' and spying into his hand I
saw, children, one halfpenny."

Auntie stopped. I think there were tears in her eyes.

"And what did you do, Auntie?" we all cried.

"What could I have done but what I did?" she said. "I don't know if it
would have been better not--better to let his simple honesty be its own
reward. I could not resist it; of course I gave him another penny! He
thanked me again quite simply; I am sure it never struck him that he had
done anything to be praised for, and I didn't praise him, I just gave
him the penny. And oh, how his bright eyes gleamed! He looked now as if
he thought he had wealth enough at his command to buy all the cookies in
the shop."

"So he hadn't only been pertending to buy," said "Budder." "Poor little
boy, he had been toosing--toosing what he would buy. I'm so glad you
gave him anoder penny, Auntie."

"He's so gad him got anoder penny," echoed Baby; though, to tell the
truth, I am not sure that he had been listening to the story. He had
been making up for lost time by crunching away at his biscuit. And when
the boys said "Good night," Auntie gave them each another biscuit, and
mother smiled and said it was because it was Auntie's first night. But
"Budder" told Baby afterwards, by some funny reasoning of his own, that
they had got another biscuit each, "'cos of that poor litt