ut of the town, near two
miles from old Scrimp's. I was there to see the poor woman the other
day. You know her husband was killed last winter by the falling of a
tree before the woodcutters thought it was ready to fall. You know she
has one little boy, who she sets every thing by, and they are pretty
poor, though the parish does help them.

I sat with her some time, and heard all her troubles and misfortings.
At last, she spoke of all the kind things she'd had done for her by
different people; among others, she told me of a kind act of old
Scrimp's.

"One day," says she, "my little boy, only four years old, did not, as
usual, come in at supper time. I went out to look for him in the wood
where he goes to play; but he was not there. Night came on, and no
Willie. I was half crazy with fear. I was at my wits' ends. I had
forbidden him to go to the village, but I concluded he had disobeyed
me; and so, at last, I sot out in that direction, though I'm so lame I
can't walk fast.

Well, she said she hadn't gone far before she met Mr. Scrimp leading
her little boy home. He had found the child, after dark, crying in the
street. He knew who was his mother, and where she lived, and he took
hold of the little fellow's hand, carried him to the bakers, bought him
a roll for supper, and was leading him home to his mother. He insisted
upon the poor widow's taking his arm, and he went back with her to her
cottage, and left a quarter of a dollar on her table when he went away."

"Now," said Miss Dolly, as she finished, "hain't Mr. Scrimp got a
heart? and, as for his living on samples, I don't believe a word of
such a ridiculous story. You see he's got a kind of habit o' saving,
and he's so thin he don't want much, and he's nobody to spend for; but
I tell you he has got a heart, and a good one, when you come at it."

This was a specimen of the conversations at the rag parties. At five
o'clock in the afternoon, the tea table was spread, and such loads of
bread and butter, cake, cheese, and what they called sweet sarse and
apple trade you never saw. The farmers and their sons, as many as could
be spared from work, put on their best coats, and helped hand about the
tea and good things. At nine exactly, they all went home, leaving many
large balls, nicely sewed, of filling for the intended new carpet.

Early in the morning of the next day, I was brightened up again, and
sent home, when my dear mistress saw me put up on a high shelf amon