aping with him somewhere out of the reach of unfriendly eyes. She
darted through the outer gate of the stable-yard just as the great clock
above the archway was striking ten; and was soon plunging through a
copse on the outskirts of the village, and making for the open country.

Scamp snuffed the breeze and barked for joy, and Hetty danced along over
the grass and through trees, forgetting everything but her own intense
enjoyment of freedom in the open air that she loved. Over yonder lay the
forge, where, as a baby of four, she had watched the great horses being
shod, and the sparks flying from their feet; and further on were the
fields and the bit of wood where she had roamed alone, up to her eyes in
the tall flag leaves and mistaking the yellow lilies for butterflies of
a larger growth. She did not remember all that now, but some pleasant
consciousness of a former free happy existence in the midst of this
fresh peaceful landscape came across her mind at moments, like gales of
hawthorn-scented air. Mrs. Enderby's mild lectures, Phyllis's contempt,
Miss Davis's shocked propriety, even Nell's easily snubbed efforts to
stand her friend, all vanished out of her memory as she went skimming
along the grass like a swallow, thrilling in all her young nerves with
the freshness and wildness of the breeze of heaven, and the vigour and
buoyancy of the life within her veins.

Five miles into the open country went Hetty, by a road she had never
seen before. She knew not, nor did she think at all of where she was
going; she only had a delightful sense of exploring new worlds. However,
about the middle of the day she felt very hungry. She began to remember
then that she could not keep on roving for ever, and that there was
probably trouble before her at Wavertree, waiting for her return.

She sat down on a bank to rest, and Scamp nestled beside her,
alternately looking in her face and licking her hands. It occurred to
Hetty that perhaps he was hungry too, and that if she had left him in
the stable-yard he would at least have got his dinner. Remorse troubled
her, and she cast about to try and discover something they two could
eat. A tempting-looking bunch of berries hung from a tree near her, and
she thought that if she could reach them they might be of some slight
use in allaying the pangs of hunger felt by both her and her dog. She
was at once on her feet, and straining all her limbs to reach the
berries.

They were caught, the br