Ellen Goodrich hears a knock on her door one afternoon. When she opens it, two boys of about ten and eleven years old ask if a woman named Florence Valle lives there. One of the boys says he is her cousin. Ellen replies that she doesn't know that woman and the boys say she used to live there. The boys glance inside at the candy bowl in Ellen's room. Ellen feels a rare desire to help the boys and invites them to have a piece. They shyly and politely refuse, but she insists they take a piece home. The boys follow her into the room and compliment how nice it is. They tell Ellen their names and ages and say they live on the east side of New York. Ellen has walked through the area and knows the boys are poor. She realizes it's been over a year since anyone except the landlady has been inside her room and feels excited conversing with the boys until they leave.   Ellen lives in a rooming house in Chelsea to save up for an annuity. She struggles to find friends and has lived alone for the ten years she's lived in New York. However, she has been unmerciful with her loved ones, such as denying to help her struggling younger brother, Harold, with a loan. At twenty-eight, she felt the hardship would be good for him. When her mother reaches out to her about it, she tells her that Harold owes it to the parents since they spent more on his education than Ellen's. Ellen feels that her odd encounter with the boys in her otherwise uneventful life has to have some meaning.   A week later, the boys return for a visit. The older boy is interested in the ornaments on Ellen's dresser, and she shows them to him. After they leave, Ellen later notices her purse is missing. She cries in bed in frustration and anger. She considers calling the police but thinks it will sound suspicious. If they really needed the money, she would have given it to them, and they did not have to steal. A few nights later, the boys knock on her door again. When Ellen accuses them of stealing her purse, the boys retort that they are not thieves. They ask for five dollars, but Ellen kicks them out and threatens to call the police. For the following days, Ellen struggles to sleep and comes down with a cold. She goes to bed early one night, feeling feverish, and hears the boys knock again. She forgot to put on the latch, and they enter and ask for money again. Ellen tells them she doesn't have any money and tells them to get out. One of the boys grabs her purse from the table and removes money from it. Ellen gets out of bed and hits him, but the boys successfully escape. Ellen yells for the landlady to no avail, then throws herself in bed again. When the landlady comes and asks what was wrong, Ellen tells her she thought she heard strange men outside.   Ellen decides to move the next morning and finds another rooming house. In her new room only a night after moving, she hears a knock on her door, and it is the boys again. The boys tell Ellen the landlady informed them of where she moved. Ellen yells at them to leave her alone and hits the younger one hard with her umbrella. He falls to the floor, and she continues to beat him. The older boy yells for help and the police loudly so that his voice can be heard from the street.