hem both, in fact,
for Huldah's nervousness, though she tried to keep it to herself,
could scarcely be concealed from Mrs. Perry.

Something must be done to distract the child's mind, she felt,--but
what? And then, as though to solve the difficulty for her, came an
order for half a dozen of Huldah's pretty baskets.

No other cure she could have found would have been half so good.
Huldah's spirits went up to a pitch of delight such as she had never
known before. She was full of gratitude and of eagerness to begin,
and if Miss Rose had not been able to drive her in to Belmouth that
very day to buy the raffia, there was, as Miss Rose said, no knowing
what might have happened.

Huldah liked the work, and she had done so little lately that the
thought of going back to it was a pleasure in itself, but best of all
was the thought of what she would do with the money when she got it.
That thought kept her in one thrill of joy.

She was to have eighteenpence each for the baskets. Nine whole
shillings! It seemed to Huldah a perfect fortune, and she would
spend the whole of it on Mrs. Perry. She would get her in a store of
coal, in readiness for the winter; then they would be able to have
good fires, and not have to be counting the cost all the time.

That was the first decision. After a time, though, that seemed
rather an uninteresting purchase. All her money would be gone at
once, and almost before she had realised that she had got it.
She next decided to get a large piece of bacon, two sacks of coal,
and a sack of corn for the fowls; but this plan was changed again for
others. Every day Huldah thought out some new and delightful
purchases, and what she would have bought finally nobody knows, for
Miss Rose and Mrs. Perry put an end to all her schemes, by insisting
that the money was to be spent on herself. She was to buy a new
winter coat for herself, they decided, and Huldah had to give in.
She was bitterly disappointed at first; it had never entered her head
to spend her money on anyone but Mrs. Perry, it was for her only that
she had wanted it.

Autumn was well advanced now, the mornings and nights were cold, and
the days not really hot, and Huldah soon began to realise that she
did need a warm garment of some sort, for she had only her thin print
frocks, and a little shoulder shawl that Mrs. Perry had given her.

So, as soon as she had got her nine shillings in her pocket, Miss
Rose came with the pony-cart a