lodgings for the night."

"There's a card up at this house that we're passing" said Cecile.
"I'll ask for a lodging at this very house, Maurice."

She rang the bell timidly, and in a moment or so a pert girl with a
dirty cap on her head came and answered it.

"Please," said Cecile, raising her pretty anxious little face, "have
you got a lodging for the night for two little children and a dog? I
see a card up. We don't mind its being a very small lodging, only it
must be cheap."

The girl burst out laughing, and rude as the ragged girl's laugh had
been, this struck more painfully, with a keener sense of ridicule, on
Cecile's ear.

"Well, I never," said the servant-maid at last; "_you_ three
want a lodging in this yere house? A night's lodging she says, for
her and the little un and the dog she says, and she wants it cheap,
she says. Go further afield, missy, this house ain't for the likes of
you," and then the door was slammed in Cecile's face.

"Look, look," said Maurice excitedly, "there's a crowd going in
there; a great lot of people, and they're all just as ragged as me
and you and Toby. Let's go in and get a bed with the ragged people,
Cecile."

Cecile raised her eyes, then she exclaimed joyfully: