"I'm glad she had," said Maggie, "'cause that would comfort her."
Her mother pressed her closely. "Well, they were very poor, so poor that at last they had only a little flour and a little oil left."
"What was oil for?"
"Like butter, to make it nice with."
"Oh!"
"Just as they were gathering some sticks to make a fire to bake their last little loaf, a man came up and asked the woman to fetch him some water.
"In the country where they lived, Maggie, people could not get water everywhere, and he had been a long journey, and was very thirsty. So she went directly to get him some; but he called her back, and said he was hungry too, would she give him some bread?"
Maggie's eyes looked sorrowful. "Poor woman, she had not much herself."
"No; and she explained this to the man; but he promised her in the name of the Lord God of Israel, whom he served, that if she would do as he asked, she should never want as long as the famine lasted."
"What is a famine?" asked Maggie.