ink?"

"Oh yes, ma'am!" cried Huldah, rapturously, gazing at the hard black
horse-hair covered thing as though it were the most luxurious couch
in the world.

"I'll give you my big shawl, to wrap yourself up in, and you can use
that cushion there for a pillow."

"Thank you, ma'am; but I think," she added, anxiously, "I'll run out
first, and see that Dick's all right. You can bolt the door after me
while I'm out."

Martha Perry did not do that, though. She stood there with the open
door in her hand, and watched almost affectionately the little brown
figure run down the garden path, and disappear in the gloom.

"Put Dick in the barn to sleep," she called after Huldah. "He'll be
nice and comfortable there;" but Dick, wise dog, was already there,
snugly curled up in the straw, and as happy as a dog could be.
The hens, too, had settled down to sleep again in their house, and
all was safe, so Huldah ran back again contentedly; and Martha Perry
welcomed her as gladly as though they were old friends, and when she
shut the door and bolted themselves in, it was with a sigh of relief
that she had this little companion.

A few minutes later the old woman was stretched out comfortably in
her bed, and the child was rolled up snugly on the hard sofa, and
silence once more fell on cottage and garden, broken only by an
occasional sleepy cluck, cluck of the hens, as they moved on their
perches, or a whimper from Dick, as in his dreams he lived over again
his rout of the enemy.

Huldah did not dream of thieves, or hens, or anything else.
She just slept, and slept, a heavy, dreamless sleep, unconscious of
everything. The hard sofa galled her poor, thin, aching body, the
round hard pillow gave her a crick in the neck, but neither of them
could make themselves felt through the sleep which held her fast in
merciful unconsciousness.

It was broad daylight, and the sun had been shining for a long time
when at last she woke with a start, and sprang up, wondering where
she was, and what had happened. Then by degrees recollection came
back to her, and she began to wonder what she could do. The old
clock in the corner pointed to seven, but there was no sound of
movement in the house. Huldah was afraid to get up and move about,
lest Mrs. Perry should suspect her of being at some wickedness; and
she was not sorry to lie still, for her limbs ached, and she felt
very, very tired, so she stretched herself out on her hard couch, and
ga