“Come.”
The girl led the way back and our hero accompanied her; they ascended to the room from whence Ike had seen the girl issue and entered, the girl still leading the way. Ike beheld at a glance that it was the home of need; on a bed lay a woman, possibly she had once been comely looking, but she did not look pretty as the boy beheld her. She was evidently quite ill and her complexion was the color of saffron.
“Mamma,” said the little girl, “here is a good boy, who says he will give us five dollars. Is that enough?”
The woman’s eyes bulged in their sunken sockets, and she asked:
“Who is the boy?”
“I think he is the boy who lives with the strange old man overhead.”
Ike stepped beside the bed and said:
“Madam, I have got five dollars to which you are welcome if it will be of any service to you.”
The woman just glared but remained silent.
Ike pulled the money from his pocket and proffered it to the invalid, who, for the first time spoke, and asked: