a few bold strokes;
but the figure and face of the child were distinct and lovely. There
was an ineffable sentiment in her solitude; there was a depth of quiet
enjoyment in her mirthful play, and in her upturned eyes.

"But at that distance," asked Kenelm, when the wanderer had finished his
last touch, and, after contemplating it, silently closed his book, and
turned round with a genial smile, "but at that distance, how can you
distinguish the girl's face? How can you discover that the dim object
she has just thrown up and recaught is a ball made of flowers? Do you
know the child?"

"I never saw her before this evening; but as I was seated here she was
straying around me alone, weaving into chains some wild-flowers which
she had gathered by the hedgerows yonder, next the high road; and as she
strung them she was chanting to herself some pretty nursery rhymes.
You can well understand that when I heard her thus chanting I became
interested, and as she came near me I spoke to her, and we soon made
friends. She told me she was an orphan, and brought up by a very old man
distantly related to her, who had been in some small trade and now lived
in a crowded lane in the heart of the town. He was very kind to her, and
being confined himself to the house by age or ailment he sent her out to
play in the fields on summer Sundays. She had no companions of her own
age. She said she did not like the other little girls in the lane; and
the only little girl she liked at school had a grander station in life,
and was not allowed to play with her, and so she came out to play alone;
and as long as the sun shines and the flowers bloom, she says she never
wants other society."

"Tom, do you hear that? As you will be residing in Luscombe, find out
this strange little girl, and be kind to her, Tom, for my sake."

Tom put his large hand upon Kenelm's, making no other answer; but he
looked hard at the minstrel, recognized the genial charm of his voice
and face, and slid along the grass nearer to him.

The minstrel continued: "While the child was talking to me I
mechanically took the flower-chains from her hands, and not thinking
what I was about, gathered them up into a ball. Suddenly she saw what
I had done, and instead of scolding me for spoiling her pretty chains,
which I richly deserved, was delighted to find I had twisted them into a
new plaything. She ran off with the ball, tossing it about till, excited
with her own joy, she got to t