`` I -- I hai n't had a thing to eat since Thursday morning , ` cept a little water from the brook out there . '' The manse children gazed at each other in horror . Faith sprang up . `` You come right up to the manse and get something to eat before you say another word . '' Mary shrank . `` Oh -- I ca n't . What will your pa and ma say ? Besides , they 'd send me back . '' `` We 've no mother , and father wo n't bother about you . Neither will Aunt Martha . Come , I say . '' Faith stamped her foot impatiently . Was this queer girl going to insist on starving to death almost at their very door ? Mary yielded . She was so weak that she could hardly climb down the ladder , but somehow they got her down and over the field and into the manse kitchen . Aunt Martha , muddling through her Saturday cooking , took no notice of her . Faith and Una flew to the pantry and ransacked it for such eatables as it contained -- some `` ditto , '' bread , butter , milk and a doubtful pie . Mary Vance attacked the food ravenously and uncritically , while the manse children stood around and watched her . Jerry noticed that she had a pretty mouth and very nice , even , white teeth . Faith decided , with secret horror , that Mary had not one stitch on her except that ragged , faded dress .
Una was full of pure pity , Carl of amused wonder , and all of them XXXXX curiosity .
Besides about around except in of that to while with