His thoughts went back to a book he had been reading.
It was about Silas Marner, a man who was sad and lonely.
Silas Marner took a little girl into his tiny house to care for, and she made his life happy again.
“Silas Marner did not have so large a home as this,” he thought. “But he took good care of the little girl. How happy they were together.”
The little face, all wet with tears, came before him again and again.
“I might keep her for a little while, at least,” he said to himself. “I will see what Mr. Alder thinks in the morning.”