ke
me a good girl," and ending with

"'Now I lay me down to sleep.'"

But sleep she could not. The wide, bright, wistful blue eyes lay
shining like two stars toward the fading light in the window, and the
little ears were strained to catch every sound. She heard the shouts of
Tom and Bill and the loud barking of Spring as they swept out of the
door; and the sound went to her heart. Spring--her faithful attendant,
the most loving and sympathetic of dogs, her friend and confidential
counselor in many a solitary ramble--Spring had gone with the boys to
see the sight, and left her alone. She began to pity herself and cry
softly on her pillow. For a while she could hear Nabby's energetic
movements below, washing up dishes, putting back chairs, and giving
energetic thumps and bangs here and there, as her way was of producing
order. But by and by that was all over, and she heard the loud shutting
of the kitchen door and Nabby's voice chatting with her attendant as she
went off to the scene of gaiety.

In those simple, innocent days in New England villages nobody thought of
locking house doors at night. There was in those times no idea either of
tramps or burglars, and many a night in summer had Dolly lain awake and
heard the voices of tree-toads and whip-poor-wills mingling with the
whisper of leaves and the swaying of elm boughs, while the great outside
door of the house lay broad open in the moonlight. But then this was
when everybody was in the house and asleep, when the door of her
parents' room stood open on the front hall, and she knew she could run
to the paternal bed in a minute for protection. Now, however, she knew
the house was empty. Everybody had gone out of it; and there is
something fearful to a little lonely body in the possibilities of a
great, empty house. She got up and opened her door, and the "tick-tock"
of the old kitchen clock for a moment seemed like company; but pretty
soon its ticking began to strike louder and louder with a nervous
insistency on her ear, till the nerves quivered and vibrated, and she
couldn't go to sleep. She lay and listened to all the noises outside. It
was a still, clear, freezing night, when the least sound clinked with a
metallic resonance. She heard the runners of sleighs squeaking and
crunching over the frozen road, and the lively jingle of bells. They
would come nearer, nearer, pass by the house, and go off in the
distance. Those were the happy folks going to see