"I knows better," was the answer she received.
"But I am, Dolly, really. I am very sorry for you, 'cause you have that pain, and 'cause you don't have any one to love you, and take care of you, and teach you. Wouldn't you let me be a little kind to you?"
"If you're so sorry, give me another of them," said Dolly again, looking at the bananas with a greedy eye. She had never tasted any thing so delicious in her life, and the one which Bessie had given only made her more anxious for a second.
Bessie gave a little sigh.
"I would if they were mine," she said; "but they are not, and so I cannot give them to you."
"Be off then. You're glad I ache so; I know you are 'cause I plagued you so."
Starr's patience was at an end; and, lifting his little charge in his arms, he plunged through the opening in the bushes.
"Miss Bessie," he said, "you ought to let that girl alone; she's not fit for you to care for, and it's all kindness thrown away."
Bessie looked very grave and thoughtful.
"Starr," she said, presently, "if she is fit for Jesus to care for, she must be fit for us to care for."