rough the garden, calling the little
girl. They hunted in every hole and corner, and in every nook and
cranny, but the child was not to be found.

"The kind-hearted nurse wept almost as bitterly as the mother. 'Oh, if
I had been here,' she cried, 'this would never have happened.'

"The little girl's father came in just in time to hear this, and he
immediately suspected that the nurse had stolen his daughter and would
pretend to find her again in the hope of securing a reward. He said
nothing of his suspicions, but he determined to have the nurse
closely watched.

"He was so firmly convinced that his suspicion was correct that he
treated his daughter's disappearance somewhat lightly, and this helped
to console the mother. When it became certain that the little girl was
not to be found in the house or on the place, her father called one of
his trusty clerks (for he was a rich and powerful merchant), and told
him to disguise himself as a peddler, go to the nurse's house, and
there discover, if possible, where the nurse had bestowed the child.

"The clerk did as he was directed, but when he arrived at the nurse's
house, disguised as a peddler, he was surprised to find as much grief
under that humble roof as there was at his master's house. He knocked
at the door and inquired the cause of the trouble, hoping to discover
that the display of grief was a mere sham. But he soon saw it was
genuine. Both the woman and her handsome son were weeping bitterly
over the disappearance of the little girl.

"'May I get a bite to eat?' asked the peddler.

"'That you may!' exclaimed the woman, 'for we shall need nothing
ourselves, until we hear some news of that precious child.' Then she
told the peddler about the strange disappearance of the little girl
she used to nurse, and the peddler, in order to carry out his purpose,
asked a great many questions. When he was told that the parents of the
little girl were very rich he laughed, and said that if they had
plenty of money they could get along very well without a little girl,
but this made the woman and her son so angry that they were on the
point of showing the peddler the door. They were ready to dismiss him
with many hard words, when they heard some one calling.

"The son went into the yard, and found that an old man had fallen not
far from their gate and was unable to rise. The woman went to help her
son bring the old man in, and while they were gone the peddler took
his leave w