"What little boy do you want? and what do you want him for?"
"I don't know his name, Sir; but he wears a short blue jacket and nankeen trowsers, and a white hat, Sir. He has black hair, and he is a very handsome boy, Sir."
"Is his name Henry," said Dr. Harris.
"I think that was the name the other lad called him by, Sir; for there was another fresh-coloured little gentleman came to the cottage with him."
"What did they come to your cottage about, my good woman?"
"Oh, Sir, I and my poor dear sick husband ought to be very thankful for the help they gave us. And I now want to see them, to thank them for their goodness, and to tell them that my husband will, by God's mercy, be able to go to work very soon. That's all I wanted, Sir," she said, again curtsying, though with some degree of alarm; for she feared that her peeping about for the boys might have offended Dr. Harris.
"What did they do for your sick husband then?" asked Dr. Harris. "I do not think they had the power of rendering you much assistance."
"Oh yes, Sir, they had," she replied: "Master Henry gave us, altogether, sixteen shillings. And I am sure, that if he had not helped us, we should all have been starved. But the Lord is always very good, and sends something to those who are in want."
At this recital Dr. Harris felt amazed; and the circumstance of Scott's money being lost, immediately recurred to his memory. "It must be so," he said to himself: "these boys, anxious to do a service to this poor family, have taken Scott's money from his box, where I suppose they thought it was lying useless, and appropriated it to relieving their wants.—Step in doors, my good woman," he said, as he hastened across the lawn: "step in: I wish to ask you a few questions."