"I'll run and get you one," volunteered Annie.
"No, no!" cried Debby, in terror. "I have no money to pay for it."
"Have you spent it all so soon?" asked Annie, curiously. "But we must go now and get our ice-cream; for, do you know, Mr. James has promised to treat all our class. So come along, for the more we eat the richer the church will grow."
"No," refused Debby, shaking off Annie's hand, "I wont do any such thing," and she shrank back into her corner.
"How queerly you act! You wont do anything I ask you," pouted Annie, turning away.
"I couldn't take it," Debby excused to herself. "I want it so much that I'd feel like a beggar in taking it from him. Annie can't understand, because she has bought it for herself, and will only eat it now for fun. I wish there was something for me to do."
Her thought was scarcely finished before it was answered by Mrs. White, in the handsome alpaca Debby's mother so admired.
"What am I to do with this child?" she asked, stopping before Mrs. Williams with a sleeping baby in her arms. "Phil wants me to go to supper with him, but what can I do?"
"I'll hold her," said Debby, eagerly. "I have a nice quiet place here."
"Much obliged, I'm sure," answered Mrs. White, placing the baby carefully in her arms.