"What for?" asked Agnes.
"Don't you know? Why, for those poor little children who haven't any toys or pleasures!"
"Which children? I never heard."
"Didn't you? not what mother told us the other day?"
"No," said Agnes, sitting down by the fire and surveying the confusion with some curiosity.
"Then I'll tell you," burst out Hugh.
"Yes, you tell her," said Minnie.
"Well, they say that there are numbers and numbers of children who have hardly any enjoyment in their lives, who are sick and full of suffering, lying on beds with nothing to do, or seated in chairs from which they cannot move. The kind people at the hospital do all they can for them, you know, Agnes; but of course they must spend their money on necessary things, and on beds and food, and they cannot afford to buy toys."
"Well?" said Agnes.
"Mother told us that anything almost would be a treat to these poor little things, and so we are seeing what we have got."