When Daniel Webster was a young lawyer, he was going home one night.
There was snow on the ground. It was very cold. It was late, and there
was nobody to be seen.
But after a while he saw a poor woman. She was ahead of him. He
wondered what had brought her out on so cold a night.
Sometimes she stopped and looked around. Then she would stand and
listen. Then she would go on again. [Illustration: Webster and the Poor
Woman]
Webster kept out of her sight. But he watched her. After looking
around, she turned down the street in which Webster lived. She stopped
in front of Webster’s house. She looked around and listened.
Webster had put down some loose boards to walk on. They reached from
the gate to the door of his house. After standing still a minute, the
woman took one of the boards, and went off quickly.
Webster followed her. But he kept out of her sight. She went to a
distant part of the town. She went into a poor little house.
Webster went home without saying anything to the woman. He knew that
she had stolen the board for fire-wood.
The next day the poor woman got a present It was a nice load of wood.
Can you guess who sent it to her?