"Are they here?" said Tom.
"Who?" said Miss Goldy-hair.
"Your childrens," said Tom.
Miss Goldy-hair shook her head.
"No," she replied. "They're in a much bigger house than this. There wouldn't be room for them here."
Then seeing that Tom, and I too, I dare say—not Racey, he wouldn't have been surprised if Miss Goldy-hair had said she had a hundred children; he never was surprised at anything when he was a little boy. If he had heard his toy-horses talking in their stables some day, I don't believe he'd have been startled—but seeing that Tom and I looked puzzled she explained what she meant to us.
"It is poor children I mean," she said. "Some kind ladies have made a nice home for poor orphan children who have no homes of their own, and as I have not any one of my own to take care of I have a great deal of time. So I go to see these poor children very often to help to teach them and make them happy, and sometimes when they are ill to help to nurse them. I like going to see them very much."
Tom looked rather pleased when he heard that Miss Goldy-hair meant poor children. I think he was a little inclined to be jealous before he heard that.
"But it isn't as nice as if you had children of your own in your own house—like mother has us. It isn't as nice as if we were your children," said Tom.
Miss Goldy-hair smiled.