"Not that exactly, aunt Zara; only to give them what we would like to have given if we were in their place; I mean, what we would have a right to like to have given, if we were in their place."
"According to that, you would carry to that sick child everything that Norton and Matilda had when they were sick."
"Such as?"—inquired David.
"Fruit, and oysters, and flowers, and tea at three dollars a pound."
"Tea at three dollars a pound would be lost upon him, for he would not know the difference between that—and I suppose—lower priced tea. What can you get good tea for, aunt Zara?"
"Tea good for him,—for a dollar, and twelve shillings."
"Tea good for anybody," said Mrs. Lloyd. "I have had it good enough for anybody, for a dollar fifty?"
"The other things," said David, returning to his aunt, "why shouldn't he have them, as well as we, aunt Zara?"
Mrs. Laval was dumb, I suppose with astonishment as well as the inconvenience of finding an answer; and before anybody else began again, Matilda's soft voice gave forth another verse.
"'Blessed is he that considereh the poor; the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.'"