“I will give half a dollar,” added Henry.
Then Frank and Flora took their money boxes out of a drawer in the play room. They were little wooden boxes with holes in the top to slip the money through. Each of them had a key, and the savings banks were emptied upon the floor.
Henry helped Flora count her money, and they found there was two dollars and seventy cents. Frank’s box had contained three dollars and twenty cents. The two cousins gave a dollar and a half; and the whole sum for the poor widow was seven dollars and forty cents.
To the children this was a great sum of money, and they thought it would pay all of Mrs. White’s expenses for the winter. Frank was chosen to keep the funds, and he put them into one of the boxes. Then Flora said they had better go down and tell her father all about the plan, and he would show them how to go to work.
Flora was so delighted, she could not walk, but went dancing down the stairs and through the entries. She kept thinking all the time how glad the poor widow would be to see the things, and how happy they would all be when they carried them to her.
Mr. and Mrs. Lee were in the sitting room when the party rushed through the entry. They saw that “something was in the wind,” and Mr. Lee threw down the newspaper which the little merchant had just brought to him, and Mrs. Lee stopped sewing. The children came just as though the house was on fire, and they would all be burnt to death if they did not run as fast as ever they could.
“Father!” shouted Flora, as she bolted into the room, followed by the others.
“What is the matter, my dear? Have you hurt you?”
“O, no, father. I’ve got something to tell you—something first rate; and I want you to help me—I mean we—for we are all going to do it.”
“What are you going to do? I should think you meant to set the river afire!”