o kind. But won't it be funny if she
gives us something, when Squire Marsh would not; at any rate, she'll
not slam the door in our faces. Come, let's go quickly, before she
puts out her little light and goes to bed. I bet she'll give us one
of her chickens. But let us take whatever she gives us, just for the
fun, and for fear we should be found out."

Willie was to be the spokesman. He felt rather queerly at first; but
the fun of the thing was too tempting, so he agreed to speak. He was
dressed as a girl, and wrapped me closely about him, as if he was
very cold. He had on an old straw bonnet, and his face was painted,
so that she could not recognize him, he knew.

They knocked at Granny Horton's door, and she, in a kind, gentle
voice, replied, "Come in!" Willie, pretending to be a girl, told how
she and her brother and sister had come from the farther part of the
town, where they lived in the woods with a mother who was very old,
and had hardly any thing to eat; and how they wanted something good
to carry to her for thanksgiving day--a little flour, or a chicken,
or any thing; that it was too hard for his dear mother to have
nothing but beans on that day; that beans were what they lived on
commonly.

He looked so mournful, and spoke in such a mournful tone that the
dear old woman, after thinking one moment, said to him, "I have two
chickens, a quart of flour, and two pounds of raisins, sent to me by
a good lady this morning, and brought to me by a real good little
boy called Willie. I can't ask their leave, but I guess they would
not scold me for giving your mother half of what he brought me; so
you shall have it, dear. 'It's more blessed to give than to
receive.' 'The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be His
name.'"

While she was saying over these blessed words, she was busy dividing
the flour and the raisins, and putting them and the chicken into the
basket which Willie gave her.

They all thanked the old woman very kindly, and went off with her
flour and chicken.

"What shall we do with it all?" said they, as soon as they were out
of the house.

"Let us," said Willie, "beg all we can every where, and get our
basket full, and carry it back to her, and, when she is asleep, get
into her house again, and put it on her hearth. I know how to open
the window on the outside when she thinks it fast."

This was a good joke for the boys; so they went from house to house,
and, except at the squire's and on