And here we must leave the party—a happy, grateful company, though Nicholas still looked pale and feeble, and the "company boy," Alexis, had eaten so tremendously that Ivan did nothing but stare at him in astonishment.
THREE KOPECKS.[[1]]
[[1]] The "kopeck" is a Russian coin of about the value of an English halfpenny.
Crouched low in a sordid chamber,
With a cupboard of empty shelves,—
Half-starved, and, alas! unable
To comfort or help themselves,—
Two children were left forsaken,
All orphaned of mortal care;
But with spirits too close to heaven
To be tainted by earth's despair,—
Alone in that mighty city,
Which shines like an Arctic star,
By the banks of the frozen Neva,
In the realm of the mighty Czar.
Now, Max was an urchin of seven;
But his delicate sister, Leeze,
With the crown of her rippling ringlets,
Could scarcely have reached your knees!
As he looked at his sister, weeping,
And tortured by hunger's smart,
A thought like an angel entered
At the door of his opened heart.
He wrote on a fragment of paper,—
With quivering hand and soul,—
"Please send to me, Christ! three kopecks,
To purchase for Leeze a roll!"