nut-walk; it was Maggie, the new school-room maid.

"Why, there you are, Master Jackie," she said; "we've been looking
everywhere for you. You're to come in out of the rain this minute,
please. And have you seen Miss Mary? Marcy me, my dear, where did you
get yon?"

She pointed excitedly to the little shoe which Jackie still held.

"Mary gave it me," he answered.

Without further ceremony this strange woman seized the shoe from him,
and with trembling hands turned it over and looked closely at the wooden
sole. Then she clasped it to her breast, and with a sudden light in her
eyes exclaimed:

"I knew it. I felt it was her. Heaven be praised!" and before Jackie
had at all regained his breath, she had rushed away down the nut-walk,
and was out of sight.

Mary, who had remained unseen, looked down from the tree.

"Isn't she an odd woman?" she said. "Do you think she's mad? Or
perhaps those are Yorkshire ways."

"If they are," replied Jackie much ruffled and discomposed, "I don't
like Yorkshire ways at all. What business has she to cut away like that
with my shoe?"

There was something mysterious altogether about Maggie's behaviour, for
when the children reached the house they found that the others were full
of excitement and curiosity. She had been seen to rush wildly in from
the garden with the little shoe hugged to her breast, and now she had
been talking to mother alone for a long while. But soon tea-time came,
all manner of games followed, and the school-room maid was forgotten in
more interesting matters. Even Mary was able to put away her troubles
for a little while, and almost to enjoy herself as she had been used
before they began. She was to stop at the White House that night,
because it was still wet and stormy, so she resolved not to think of the
chickens or Perrin or Seraminta just for that one evening. It would be
time enough to be miserable again when morning came.

Everything went on merrily until Jackie's guests were all gone away.

"What shall we do now?" he said, yawning a little, for there was still
an hour to be filled up before bed-time. Just as he spoke Mrs Chelwood
came into the school-room.

"Children," she said, "would you like me to tell you a story?"

Nothing could possibly be better, and the offer came at the right moment
when things were feeling a little flat; the children received it
joyfully, and gathered round their mother eagerly, and yet with a
certain seriou