In stave 3, how does the detail of the children on the spirit’s legs contribute to the overall text?

Scrooge sees under the robe of the Ghost of Christmas Present, two children, whose names show that they are symbols: Ignorance and want. They are your standard impoverished Dickensian children; they are ragged in clothes, dirty and starving. The children add to the motif of the vulnerable and the meek suffering while men like Scrooge hoard their money.