Ben gave him no time to speak, however, for running to a door he flung it open and beckoned, saying, eagerly,-- "Do stay, father; it will be so nice to have you.

This is a tip-top room; I slept here the night I came, and that bed was just splendid after bare ground for a fortnight." "I'll stop, and as I'm pretty well done up, I guess we may as well turn in now," answered the new guest; then, as if the memory of that homeless little lad so kindly cherished made his heart overflow in spite of him, Mr.Brown paused at the door to say hastily, with a hand on Bab and Betty's heads, as if his promise was a very earnest one,-- "I don't forget, ma'am, these children shall never want a friend while Ben Brown's alive;" then he shut the door so quickly that the other Ben's prompt "Hear, hear!" was cut short in the middle.
"I s'pose he means that we shall have a piece of Ben's father, because we gave Ben a piece of our mother," said Betty, softly.
"Of course he does, and it's all fair," answered Bab, decidedly.

"Isn't he a nice man, Ma?
"Go to bed, children," was all the answer she got; but when they were gone, Mrs.Moss, as she washed up her dishes, more than once glanced at a certain nail where a man's hat had not hung for five years, and thought with a sigh what a natural, protecting air that slouched felt had.
If one wedding were not quite enough for a child's story, we might here hint what no one dreamed of then, that before the year came round again Ben had found a mother, Bab and Betty a father, and Mr.Brown's hat was quite at home behind the kitchen door.

But, on the whole, it is best not to say a word about it..