“Well,” said Penny, making fruitless attempts to thread her needle, “I suppose mother will help her to get some money. I shall ask her to let me give her some out of the charity-box—only I’m afraid there isn’t much in it now.”
“If you really wanted to help her,” said nurse, who saw an excellent opportunity for making a useful suggestion, “you might make some things for her baby; she hasn’t much time for sewing, poor soul.”
“Oh, I couldn’t possibly do that,” said Penny decidedly, “because, you know, I hate needlework so. I couldn’t do any extra, it would take all my time.”
Nurse rolled up a tight bundle of clothes and left the room without answering, and Penny, with her frowning little face bent over her work, went on thinking about Mrs Dicks and her six children. She wondered whether they had enough to eat now; if they were to be brought up on nothing, they probably had not, she thought, and she felt anxious to finish her task that she might run and ask mother about it, and how she could best help with the money out of the charity-box. So she cobbled over the last stitches rather hastily, and put the work away; but she found after all that her mother was too busy to attend to her just then. The next step, therefore, was to ascertain the state of the charity-box, and she took it down from the mantel-piece in the play-room and gave it a little shake. It made quite a rich sound; but Penny knew by experience what a noise coppers can make, so she was not very hopeful as she unscrewed the top and looked in. And matters were even worse than she feared, for all the box contained was this: two pennies, one halfpenny, and one stupid little farthing. Penny felt quite angry with the farthing, for it was bright and new, and looked at the first glance almost like gold.
“If you were a fairy farthing,” she said, “you’d get yourself changed into gold on purpose to help Mrs Dicks; but it’s no use waiting for that.”
That afternoon Penny was to go out with her mother, instead of walking with the other school-room children and the governess. It was a great honour and delight, and she had saved up so many questions to ask about various subjects that she had scarcely time to tell her about Mrs Dicks and the state of the charity-box.
They had just begun to talk about it, when Mrs Hawthorne stopped at a house near their own home.
“Oh, mother!” cried Penny in some dismay, “are we going to see Mrs Hathaway?”
“Yes,” answered her mother, “she has promised to show me her embroideries, and I think you will like to see them too.”
Penny did not feel at all sure about that, she was rather afraid of Mrs Hathaway, who was a severe old lady, noted for her exquisite needlework; however, it was a treat to go anywhere with mother, even to see Mrs Hathaway.