"O thank you, David! But—there are so many more that want it," said Matilda, looking sober and prudent in odd contrast with her years.
"We can't help them too," said David.
"Better keep the beefsteak, I guess," said Matilda. "O David, I know! Potatoes!"
"What of potatoes?"
"Just what they want. Sure to want them, you know; and exactly the thing. Let us have a good sack of potatoes."
David seemed to be so much amused that he could hardly keep to the practical soberness of the thing. However he agreed to the potatoes. And he and Matilda, moved by one impulse, set off for a hardware store down in one of the avenues, not far to seek; and there spent a most delicious half hour. They chose some common cups and saucers and plates; a yellow pitcher, a sugar bowl and one or two dishes; half a dozen knives and forks and spoons. It was difficult to stop in their purchases, for the poor friends they were thinking of had nothing. So a tin tea-pot was added to the list.
"O David!" Matilda exclaimed again—"we ought to have some soap."
"I dare say," said David dryly. "But we do not get that here."
"No; but seeing that toilet soap put me in mind of it. We get that at the grocer's."
"It won't do for us to send in our grocer's stores just yet. When do your people come to take possession?"