her spoon.

Then she stood still--she stood to see the wreck she had made. Long she
did not stand: a rush of thought gave wings to her feet, and she fled
to hide in some place where she could not, she thought, be found. She
fled to a tool-house in the yard; but she had not been half an hour
there when she heard the voice of Mrs. Grey; she heard her step, too,
come near and more near, till at length it came close to the door of
the tool-house.

"Ruth, my dear," said Mrs. Grey, "why did you come out here? But I am
glad to have found you, for I want you to come with me and take a plant
to the green-house room."

"Oh, no, no! not in there--do not go in there!" cried Ruth, with a face
quite pale.

Mrs. Grey could not think what Ruth meant, so she set off at once to
the green-house room, and told Ruth that she must come too. But when
Mrs. Grey had got to the door, no Ruth was to be seen. She then went in
the room, and what she saw there told her more than words could tell.

"Ruth!" said she, "can you have done this?"

It was grief to think that a child of hers could have done this; but,
much as she felt hurt, it was not for the loss of these things. Mrs.
Grey sat down, and for a long time she did not move; at length she got
up with the air of one who had made up her mind what it would be best
for her to do.

And Ruth--where was she? What did she think, what did she feel, what
did she do all the time Mrs. Grey was in the green-house room?

What she felt was a kind of grief, such as she had not felt till that
time: it was a sense of _deep shame_. So much did she dread to see Mrs.
Grey, that she hid her face in her hands, as though Mrs. Grey were near
her. Then all at once she thought that Mrs. Grey would come back to
speak to her.

At this thought she sprang up, ran to her own room, shut the door, and
fell down on the bed. Here she lay for a long time, with her face hid
in the bed-clothes: her tears fell fast, and her sobs were loud. In
this sad state she lay for a long time, till at last she went to sleep.

How long she had slept she could not tell, but when she rose up in the
bed it was quite dark. At first she could not think how she came to be
there, but all at once the green-house scene came back to her mind.
Once more she fell down on the bed to hide her face, though no one was
there to see it.

Soon there came a stream of light through a chink in the door: it grew
more strong, till at length it came in the