He held up the medal, saying, eagerly, "I found it."
"It's a dollar, a silver dollar, Johnny."
"Oh, goody!" cried the boy; "now I can have some new shoes. I thought it was a Father Matthew's medal; but I'd rather have a dollar. Oh, I'm so glad!"
The woman looked in his pale face, and couldn't help saying, as she did so,—
"Are you hungry, child?"
"Not very."
"What did you have for breakfast?"
His lips quivered, but he knew by her kind face that she was a friend; and he told her the whole story of his mother's long sickness; and how they had grown poorer and poorer, until there was nothing now but what he earned.
"I knew Ella would be hungrier than I," he said, looking the woman full in the face with his clear blue eyes; "and so I didn't take the porridge."
"Wait a minute; you sha'n't go to work so," was all she said; and then she was off through the door, down the long steps in a hurry.