So she lay in her clothes all that night, and next day, not a word
she said, and I was at my needlework all that day, in my own room,
except when I went down to my dinner.

"I would a liked to see the ald lady, and even to hear her speak. But
she might as well a' bin in Lunnon a' the time for me.

"When I had my dinner my aunt sent me out for a walk for an hour. I
was glad when I came back, the trees was so big, and the place so dark
and lonesome, and 'twas a cloudy day, and I cried a deal, thinkin' of
home, while I was walkin' alone there. That evening, the candles bein'
alight, I was sittin' in my room, and the door was open into Madam
Crowl's chamber, where my aunt was. It was, then, for the first time I
heard what I suppose was the ald lady talking.

"It was a queer noise like, I couldn't well say which, a bird, or a
beast, only it had a bleatin' sound in it, and was very small.

"I pricked my ears to hear all I could. But I could not make out one
word she said. And my aunt answered:

"'The evil one can't hurt no one, ma'am, bout the Lord permits.'

"Then the same queer voice from the bed says something more that I
couldn't make head nor tail on.

"And my aunt med answer again: 'Let them pull faces, ma'am, and say
what they will; if the Lord be for us, who can be against us?'

"I kept listenin' with my ear turned to the door, holdin' my breath,
but not another word or sound came in from the room. In about twenty
minutes, as I was sittin' by the table, lookin' at the pictures in the
old Aesop's Fables, I was aware o' something moving at the door, and
lookin' up I sid my aunt's face lookin' in at the door, and her hand
raised.

"'Hish!' says she, very soft, and comes over to me on tiptoe, and she
says in a whisper: 'Thank God, she's asleep at last, and don't ye make
no noise till I come back, for I'm goin' down to take my cup o' tea,
and I'll be back i' noo--me and Mrs. Wyvern, and she'll be sleepin' in
the room, and you can run down when we come up, and Judith will gie ye
yaur supper in my room.'

"And with that she goes.

"I kep' looking at the picture-book, as before, listenin' every noo
and then, but there was no sound, not a breath, that I could hear; an'
I began whisperin' to the pictures and talkin' to myself to keep my
heart up, for I was growin' feared in that big room.

"And at last up I got, and began walkin' about the room, lookin' at
this and peepin' at that, to amuse my mind, ye'll understa