_Margaret._ I never had any, Sir; but I am not very cold.
_J._ What are you doing here; do you wish to buy one of these bundles of wood?
_M._ I should like to do so, but I am afraid that I have not got money enough.
_J._ For whom do you wish to buy the wood?
The little girl looked down and seemed rather troubled at this question.
_J._ Did your father or your mother send you for it?
_M._ No, Sir, I wanted to give it to Old Thomas?
_M._ He is our neighbour. He is a mason, and he hurt his leg a fortnight ago, while removing some stones. He is unable to work, and is confined to his bed, and must be very cold.
_J._ Does he know that you intend to give him a bundle of wood?
_J._ My little girl, how did you get this money?
_M._ It was paid me this morning for a pair of socks which I knit last week.
_M._ No, Sir, I work at the cotton factory; and my father, and mother, and little brother, work there also.
_J._ How could you find time to make the socks?
_M._ They were only small ones; I knit them last week, very early in the morning and during the dinner hour.
_J._ Then you have worked very hard to help your poor neighbour?
_M._ Was it not my duty, Sir? has not God told us to do so? [added she, modestly, and not in the boasting way in which some children talk about any good they have done.]
_J._ Did you buy any wood for Thomas before to-day?
_M._ No, Sir; last Saturday I had earned three-halfpence, but I lost them while I was running to the shop.
_M._ Why, Sir, I could not help it when they were gone. I hoped God would enable me to be more careful next time.
_M._ I have again got three-halfpence, and here they are, quite safe.
_J._ Well; let us ask what the bundles cost.
The price of each faggot was two-pence, and the wood-merchant said he could not afford to sell them for less. Poor Margaret was very sorrowful when she heard this, and she was going to depart, when Joseph said he would pay the other half-penny.
The little girl was filled with joy. She put down her three-halfpence, then caught up a bundle of wood and ran down the street as fast as her burden would let her. Joseph looked after her, and saw her turn into a court at some distance. He at first thought he would follow her, and go to see Old Thomas, but he recollected it was the time for his drawing lesson, and besides, he saw his father at the window beckoning to him.