l!" thought Pet. "Is this really the sort of thing
that poor people suffer. How I wish the month was up that I might do
something for them!" And she tried to glance at the clock, but could
not, because the man kept his eyes bent on the ground.

Pet was kept awake all that night by the ploughman's sad thoughts, and
very early in the morning she was hard at work again, carrying a heavy
heart with her all about the fields. Day after day this went on, and she
was often very hungry, and very sad at hearing the complaints of the
hungry children, and seeing the pale face of the sick woman. Every day
things became worse. The ploughman got into debt through trying to
procure a little wine to save his wife's life, and when rent-day came
round he had not enough money to pay. Just as things arrived at this
state, the clock ran down, and Pet, who had taken care to put it in her
pocket that morning along with the key, suddenly found her own self
standing alone in the field, watching the poor ploughman following his
plough, exactly as she had at first beheld him. She at once began
running away as fast as she could, when she was stopped by her friend
Time, who stood in her path.

"Where are you running to now?" asked he.

"I am hurrying home to my palace to get money, and wine, and everything
for these poor people!" cried Pet.

"Gently!" said Time, "I cannot allow it so soon. You must continue your
experiences and trust the poor ploughman and his family to me; I will
take care of them till you are able to do something for them. Were you
to go back to your palace now, you would be kept there, and I should no
longer be able to stand your friend; on the contrary, I might, perhaps,
against my will, be forced to prove your enemy. Go on now, and remember
my instructions."

And he vanished again.

Pet travelled a long way after this, and as she had to beg on the road
for a little food and a night's lodging, she had very good opportunities
for seeing the kindness with which the poor behave to each other.
Mothers, who had hardly enough for their own children to eat, would give
her a piece of bread without grumbling. At last, one evening, she
arrived at a splendid large city, and felt quite bewildered with the
crowds in the streets and the magnificence of the buildings. At first
she could not see any people who looked very poor; but at last, when
lingering in front of a very handsome shop window, she noticed a
shabbily-dressed young girl