"I'll toss up for it!" said Dick, finally; and, fumbling in his pockets, the copper was produced ready for the test.
Just then, his attention was suddenly diverted. Close to him sounded a voice, weak and not very melodious, but bravely singing:
"There is a happy land
Far, far away,
Where saints in glory stand
Bright, bright as day!"
Dick listened in silence till the last little quaver had died away, and then said: "Whew! That was purty, anyhow. Where is the piper, I wonder!" He looked about for the musician, but could see no one. He was the only person in the alley.
Again the song began, and this time he traced the voice to the house against which he had been leaning. The window was just at his right, and through one of the broken panes came the notes. Dick's modesty was not a burden to him, so it was the work of only a moment to put his face to the hole in the window and take a view.
A small room, not very nice to see, was what he saw; then, as his eye became used to the dim light, he espied on a low bed in the corner a little girl gazing at him with a pair of big black eyes.
"I say, there! Was it you pipin' away so fine?" began Dick, without the slightest embarrassment.
"If you mean, was I a-singin'?—I was," answered the child from the bed, not seeming at all surprised at this sudden intrusion upon her privacy.
"I say, who are you, anyhow?"
"I'm Gerty, and I stay here all the day while mother is away washing; and she locks the door so no one can't get in," explained the girl.