he ragged little girl
set up quite a shriek of joy.

"Yes, I has her," added the boy; "but she pulls desperate hard, and
would bite me, if she could, through the cloth. Suppose I wraps her in
it, and carries her home for you, for we must not let her loose again.
Hark! how she skirls, master and miss!"

Henry and Emily approved of this scheme; the boy kept Maggy in the
folds of the old jacket, and Emily helped the little girl to get over
the stile; and the four children walked quickly towards the house. When
they had crossed the two fields, Emily ran forward to fetch the cage,
and the boy managed to get Mag into it without getting his fingers bit;
after which Henry and Emily had leisure to ask the boy who he was, for
they had never seen him before.

He told them that his name was Edward, and that his little sister was
called Jane, and that they had no father or mother, but lived with
their grandmother in a cottage on the common, just by Sir Charles
Noble's park; and that their grandmother was very bad, and could not
work, but lay sick in bed; and that they were all half-starved, and he
was come out to beg--"Miss and Master," added the boy, "for we could
not starve, nor see granny dying of hunger."

What a sad thing it is that stories of this kind are often told to
deceive people, and get money out of them on false pretences! But Emily
and Henry saw how thin and ragged these poor children were, and Emily
thought of a plan of giving them a supper without taking what they gave
from her father. So she proposed her scheme to Henry, and he said:

"That will just do; I did not think of it."

Emily then said to the children:

"Sit down here; we will take naughty Mag into the house, and come back
to you;" and she and Henry were off in a minute. They ran in to Betty,
and asked her what she had for their supper. Betty was shelling peas in
the kitchen, and she told them that she was going to cook them for her
master and mistress; and she said:

"I suppose, Miss Emily, you and your brother will sup with your parents
to-night."

"But, if you please, we would rather have our supper now," said Emily.

"That we would," cried Henry; "so please, Betty, do give us something
now."

"Then you must not have a second supper, Master Henry," said Betty, "if
I give you something to eat now."

"Very well, Betty," replied both children at once; "but we would like
it now, instead of waiting later for papa and mamma."

So Betty gave e