"Oh! what is the matter, Sadie?" cried Tess, running to the little Jewish girl's side.
"He's a thief! he's a gonnif! he's a thief!" shrieked Sadie, dragging at the man's coat. "He stole mine money. He's busted open mine bank and stoled all mine money!"
"That red bank in the kitchen?" asked Tess, wonderingly. "That one your mother put the quarter in every week for you?"
"Sure!" replied the excited Sadie. "My mother's out. I'm alone with the kids. In this man comes and robs mine bank——"
"What is the trouble?" asked Ruth of the man.
"Why, bless you, somebody's been fooling the kid," he said, with some compassion. "And it was a mean trick. They told her the quarter-meter was a bank and that all the money that was put in it should be hers.
"She's a good little kid, too. I've often seen her taking care of her brothers and sisters and doing the work. The meter had to be opened to-day and the money taken out—and she caught me at it."
Afterward Agnes said to Ruth: "I could have hugged that man, Ruthie—for he didn't laugh!"