forbidden him to go to the village, but I concluded he had disobeyed
me; and so, at last, I sot out in that direction, though I'm so lame
I can't walk fast.

Well, she said she hadn't gone far before she met Mr. Scrimp leading
her little boy home. He had found the child, after dark, crying in
the street. He knew who was his mother, and where she lived, and he
took hold of the little fellow's hand, carried him to the bakers,
bought him a roll for supper, and was leading him home to his
mother. He insisted upon the poor widow's taking his arm, and he
went back with her to her cottage, and left a quarter of a dollar on
her table when he went away."

"Now," said Miss Dolly, as she finished, "hain't Mr. Scrimp got a
heart? and, as for his living on samples, I don't believe a word of
such a ridiculous story. You see he's got a kind of habit o' saving,
and he's so thin he don't want much, and he's nobody to spend for;
but I tell you he has got a heart, and a good one, when you come at
it."

This was a specimen of the conversations at the rag parties. At five
o'clock in the afternoon, the tea table was spread, and such loads
of bread and butter, cake, cheese, and what they called sweet sarse
and apple trade you never saw. The farmers and their sons, as many
as could be spared from work, put on their best coats, and helped
hand about the tea and good things. At nine exactly, they all went
home, leaving many large balls, nicely sewed, of filling for the
intended new carpet.

Early in the morning of the next day, I was brightened up again, and