“No; I am ashamed to say that this is my first experience of anything of the kind,” Allison gravely replied; “but it would have been inhuman to have left her lying there upon the pavement, or to have allowed her to be carried away to a hospital, when help was so near. I knew, too, that she could not fall into better hands than yours.”
“Thank you for your tribute and confidence,” said the surgeon, in a gratified tone, “but there will be no charge for what I have done.”
“Oh, but I never should have presumed to bring her here if I had not expected to be responsible for her fee,” Allison exclaimed, and flushing sensitively.
“I understand; but I think you have already done your share for that poor, forsaken-looking child,” the man kindly responded. “I like to do a good deed once in a while myself, so we will not talk any more about the fee.”
He had not been unmindful of what had occurred between the two girls, notwithstanding he had appeared to be absorbed in other things.
Allison thanked him heartily for his personal interest in the case, and then, after a few moments of friendly chatting, bade him good afternoon, and went home, having received a vivid object lesson upon human poverty and suffering which she felt she should never forget, and little thinking how the “bread which had that day been cast upon the waters” would be returned to her after many days.