ood a woman with a baby in her
arms.

"Her voice had sounded faint-like, but there was nothing in the
fainting line about her when she had got inside, for she come inside
quick enough the moment mother had unbarred the door. She looked like a
gipsy, for her face was dark and swarthy, and the shawl round her head
hid a'most all but the wild gleam of her eyes; and all the time she kep'
on rock, rocking that child in her arms until I reckon she must have
rocked all the crying out of it, for never a word come from its lips.
She sat down where mother pointed, and took the food she was given, but
she offered nothing to the child. It was asleep, she said, when mother
wanted to look at it.

"Yes, she was a gipsy, and on the tramp across the moor she had missed
her way in the fog; for there was a heavy fog coming up. 'How far was it
to Farnington? Twelve miles? She'd be thankful to sit and rest by the
fire a bit, then, if mother would let her.' And without waiting for yes
or no, she turned round and put the child out of her arms down on the
settle at her back. Then she swung round again and sat staring with her
black eyes at the fire. I was sat on my stool opposite, and, child-like,
I never so much as took my eyes off her, wondering at her gaunt make,
the big feet in the clumsy men's boots that showed beneath her skirts,
and the lean powerful hands lying in her lap. Seems she didn't
altogether like me watching her, for after a bit she turns on me and
asks:

"'What are you staring at, you brat?'

"'Nothin',' says I.

"'Then if you wants to look at nothin',' says she with a short laugh,
'you can go and stare at the kiddy there, not at me.' And she jerked her
head towards the settle, where the baby was a-lying.

"'Ah, poor little thing,' says mother, getting up, 'it don't seem
natural for it to lie there that quiet. I'll bring it to the fire and
warm it a drop o' milk.'

"She bent down over the baby and was just about to take it in her arms,
when she give a scream that startled me off my stool, and stood up, her
face as white as death. For it was nothing but a shawl or two rolled
round something stiff and heavy as was lying on the settle, and no child
at all.

"I was a-looking at mother, and I had no eyes for the woman until I see
mother's face change and an awful look of fear come over it. And when I
turned to see what she was staring at with them wild eyes, the woman had
flung off her shawl and the wrap she wore round