d books.

"If you think it's goin' to be funny to travel in wet clothes to-night,
just wait till you git started."

But they did not start upon their journey again that night, after all.
Their kindly hostess insisted upon their remaining until the morning, at
least, and when the supper dishes were cleared away Lou wandered off by
herself down the little lane which led to the pasture.

There would be three days more, and then their journey's end. Upon one
thing she had decided: there would be no school for her! She was going
to work as quickly as she could find something to do. Mr. James Abbott
must be paid back for the little pink-checked frock and the hat with the
green bow, and then she would drop from his sight. Surely in that great
city, with its hundreds and hundreds of people, she would be able to
disappear.

Reaching the pasture, she stood at the gate with her arms resting upon
the topmost rail, and was so deep in reflection that she did not hear a
step behind her until a hand touched her shoulder, and Jim's voice asked
quietly:

"What are you doing off here by yourself, Lou? Mrs. Bemis didn't know
what had become of you, and I've been looking everywhere."

"I dunno," Lou answered truthfully enough. "I been thinkin' 'bout the
institootion where I come from; it was seein' them little boys put me in
mind of it, I reckon. I was kinder wonderin' what it would be like to
really belong to anybody."

There was neither pathos nor self-pity in her tone, but rather a cold,
dispassionate speculation that froze the words of awkward sympathy which
rose to his lips, and he remained silent.

"I did once, you know," she continued, "belong to some--body, I mean. I
had on a white dress all trimmed with lace when they found me in the
station at the junction an' took me up to the institootion; it was the
only white dress I ever had."

"Where was this institution, Lou?" Jim asked. "You've never told me, you
know."

Lou shrugged.

"Oh, it was 'way up at a place called Mayfield's Corners; I was most
three hours on the train before I got to the station nearest Hess's
farm."

A vicious desire came over her to shock and repulse that inexplicable
thing in him which set him apart from her and made him one with the
world in which those others moved; that stout gentleman and the young
lady who had called him Jimmie. She added deliberately:

"I told you what I did there--at the institootion, I mean: scrubbed an'
cooked an' wa