"Let us call them in," said James, "and they can warm themselves by the fire."
As James said this, he tapped on the window, and the little children came to the basement door. James ran and opened the door, and said, "Come in, poor children, and warm yourselves." He placed his own and his sister's little chair for them by the fire, and then Julia and he went into a corner of the room to consult together what they should give them, to make them warm.
Now the Father of these children had had the misfortune to lose his hair, and he was obliged to wear a wig. Every night, when he went to bed, he used to take off his wig, and hang it upon a nail in his dressing-room, and put on a white night-cap with a long tassel at the end of it.
The morning that I am telling about, he was not yet up, as it was very early; and the wig was hanging on the nail, as I have told you.
James looked at the poor little boy. He saw that his ears were very red with the cold, and he said to his sister, "I will go up stairs, and find something to put on his head."
So he ran up stairs very fast, and went into his Father's dressing-room and looked all round. Presently he saw the wig hanging on the nail. "Oh!" said he to himself, "that is just the thing. It will come all over the poor boy's ears, and keep them very warm indeed."
So this thoughtless little fellow climbed up on a chair, and pulled the wig off the nail, and then went into the closet and got a pair of new boots of his own; and running down as fast as he could, he pulled the wig over the poor boy's ears, and helped him on with the boots. They fitted exactly, for James and he were very nearly of the same size.
While he was doing this, Julia had dressed the little girl in a nice warm frock of her own, and also made her a present of her school muff, and the little beggar children went away, highly delighted with their good fortune, and were out of sight long before any one had come into the room to prevent all this mischief.
When their Father got up, he opened the door of his bed-room, which led into the dressing-room, and began to dress himself. Presently he went to the side of the room where he had hung up his wig the night before. The nail was empty. There was no wig on it. He looked down on the carpet, and on all the chairs, and in all the drawers, but there was no wig to be found. He rang the bell, and said to the servant, "Do you know any thing about my wig?"
But the servant said she had not been in the room. She did not know where it was.