few words, and did not take the least notice of their complaints. At
last, when they suddenly felt that they could not go another step, so
great was their fatigue, they came out on an open clearing in the
wood, in the center of which a great big tent was pitched. Several
smaller tents were also to be seen in the neighborhood of the big one,
and a lot of children, very brown and ugly, and only half-dressed,
were lying about on the grass, squabbling and rolling over one
another. Some dogs also were with the children, and an old woman, a
good deal browner than Mother Rodesia, was sitting at the door of the
big tent.

As soon as ever the children saw the little strangers, they scrambled
to their feet with a cry, and instantly surrounded Mother Rodesia and
Orion and Diana.

"Back, all of you, you little rascallions," said Mother Rodesia;
"back, or I'll cuff you. Where's Mother Bridget? I want to speak to
her?"

When Mother Rodesia said this the old woman at the door of the
principal tent rose slowly and came to meet them.

"Well, Rodesia," she said, "and so you has found these little
strangers in the wood? What purty little dears!"

"Yes, I have found them," said Mother Rodesia, "and I have brought
them home to supper. After supper we are to send them home. They hail
from the Rectory. Is Jack anywhere about?"

"I saw him not half an hour back," said the old woman; "he had just
brought in a fat hare, and I popped it into the pot for supper. You
can smell it from here, little master," she said, stooping suddenly
down and letting her brown, wrinkled, aged face come within an inch or
two of Orion's. He started back, frightened. He had never seen anyone
so old nor so ugly before. Even the thought of the strawberries and
cream, and the milk and cake, could not compensate for the look on
Mother Bridget's face.

Diana, however, was not easily alarmed.

"The stuff in the pot smells vedy good," she said, sniffing. "I could
shoot lots of hares, 'cos I is the gweatest huntwess in all the world.
I is Diana. Did you ever hear of Diana, ugly old woman?"

"You had best not call Mother Bridget names," said Mother Rodesia,
giving Diana a violent shake as she spoke.

But the little girl leaped lightly away from her.

"I always call peoples just what I think them," she said; "I wouldn't
be the gweat Diana if I didn't. I has not got one scwap of fear in me,
so you needn't think to come wound me that way. I do think she is
awfu' u