"If only
you'll give us a bit of bread. I haven't got any money, but I'll
give you one of my baskets for it. Oh, please, ma'am, don't turn us
away!" The tears began to rain down her thin white cheeks. She had
borne all that she could bear, and she had not the strength to keep
them back any longer.
Dick, who could never bear to see his little mistress crying, pushed
himself forward; first he licked Huldah's hand, and then seated
himself in front of her, as though to protect her from the ogress who
made her cry. Something in the ogress's face, though, told Dick that
she was not a real ogress, and he looked up at her with a world of
pleading in his big brown eyes, and his long tail waving coaxingly.
"Poor doggie!" exclaimed the ogress. "Poor Dick, are you hungry,
too? You do look tired and thin. Yes, you shall come in;" and the
narrow stream of light became a wide river, which broke over the pair
and surrounding them drew them in, until they found themselves safely
landed in the cosiest little kitchen Huldah had ever seen.
It was really a very humble little kitchen, with signs of poverty
everywhere, but to Huldah it was a palace. It was spotlessly clean,
and as neat as a new pin, and to a child who had spent the greater
part of her life in a dirty, untidy caravan, this was a sign of
superiority, even of luxury.
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