broke up, and soon a ruddy glare from the fire lighted up the dismal room.
The furniture consisted of a three-legged round table, a chair minus a leg, and a three-legged stool. On the window-sill there was a glass bottle with a candle stuck in the neck, and under the stairs there was a heap of rags and shavings, on which Benny and his sister slept. A frying-pan was suspended against the wall near the fireplace, and several cracked cups and saucers, together with a quart mug, stood on the table. The only other article of furniture was a small cupboard in a corner of the room close up to the ceiling, placed there, no doubt, to be out of the way of the children.
Drawing the chair and the stool close up to the fire, Benny and his sister waited the return of their parents.
Outside, the wind moaned and wailed, and whistled through the keyhole and the chinks in the door, and rattled the paper and rags with which the holes in the window were stopped. And as the children listened they shivered, and drew closer together, and nearer the fire.
"By golly!" said Benny, "this house is like a hair-balloon. I wish as how we could keep the wind out.
"You can't do that, Benny; it creeps in everywheres,"
"Are 'e cold, Nell?"
"No, not very; but I's very hungry."
Just then an uncertain step was heard in the court outside, and the next moment their stepmother staggered into the room.
"Now, out of the way, you brats," was her greeting, "while I cooks your father's supper."
