"Do as ye will," he said shortly. "I'm not the man to refuse a crust when I can afford un."
Esther silently distributed the contents of the little blue plate. Ailie grasped with famished eagerness at the dry bread held out to her. She did not eat it quickly, however. The pleasure was too real and delicious to be soon ended, so she bit off small pieces, and constrained herself to munch them slowly, working her way across the room while doing so, till she found herself within two paces of the little girl, who thereupon beckoned her to come and sit down upon the floor. Ailie obeyed the invitation immediately, and stared hard at her and the boy.
"We're a queer couple, ain't we?" said the latter, with a twinkle of amusement in his hollow eyes. "Leastways, you seems to think so. What's wrong with us, eh?"
"What's your name?" asked Ailie, taking another bite.
"Mine's a jolly name, ain't it, Lettie? I'm Horatio Nelson Forsyth."
Ailie thought that grand indeed, and gazed with rounded fascinated eyes.
"Lettie calls me Hor, and so does most folks; but I like more particular to be called Nelson. He was a real man, you see, as I was named after—the biggest sailor ever lived, an' beat all his enemies to nothin', an' I'd like to do the same."
"You couldn't," said Ailie, grieved to see how her crust was diminishing.
"Maybe not; but I'd like it just—wouldn't I? I'll be a sailor some day, an' live on the sea in a big ship."
"What's the sea like?" asked Ailie.