."

Phil opened the door and entered. The shopkeeper, a peevish-looking man,
with lightish hair, stood behind the counter weighing out a pound of tea
for a customer.

"What do you want here, you little vagabonds?" he exclaimed, harshly, as
he saw the two boys enter.

"We are cold," said Phil. "May we stand by your stove and get warm?"

"Do you think I provide a fire for all the vagabonds in the city?" said
the grocer, with a brutal disregard of their evident suffering.

Phil hesitated, not knowing whether he was ordered out or not.

"Clear out of my store, I say!" said the grocer, harshly. "I don't want
you in here. Do you understand?"

At this moment a gentleman of prepossessing appearance entered the
store. He heard the grocer's last words, and their inhumanity made him
indignant.

"What do these boys want, Mr. Perkins?" he said.

"They want to spend their time in my shop. I have no room for such
vagabonds."

"We are cold," said Phil. "We only want to warm ourselves by the fire."

"I don't want you here," said the grocer, irritably.

"Mr. Perkins," said the gentleman, sharply, "have you no humanity? What
harm can it do you to let these poor boys get warm by your fire? It will
cost you nothing; it will not diminish your personal comfort; yet you
drive them out into the cold."

The grocer began to perceive that he was on the wrong tack. The
gentleman who addressed him was a regular and profitable customer, and
he did not like to incur his ill will, which would entail loss.

"They can stay, Mr. Pomeroy," he said, with an ill grace, "since you ask
it."

"I do not ask it. I will not accept, as a personal favor, what you
should have granted from a motive of humanity, more especially as, after
this exhibition of your spirit, I shall not trade here any longer."

By this time the grocer perceived that he had made a mistake.

"I hope you will reconsider that, Mr. Pomeroy," he said, abjectly. "The
fact is, I had no objections to the boys warming themselves, but they
are mostly thieves, and I could not keep my eyes on them all the time."

"I think you are mistaken. They don't look like thieves. Did you ever
have anything stolen by one of this class of boys?"

"Not that I know of," said the grocer, hesitatingly; "but it is likely
they would steal if they got a chance."

"We have no right to say that of anyone without good cause."

"We never steal," said Phil, indignantly; for he understood what was
said.