rosy cheeks. It
was evident that some of her clothes had been stolen. Indeed they were
almost all gone, and she had scarcely anything on but an old, and very
dirty shawl, which was wrapped round her body so tightly that it must have
hurt her very much. She had lost one of her shoes, and her foot was bound
up with a filthy piece of rag. She had both her socks on, but they were in
dreadful holes. She was wearing a torn sun-bonnet, which was covered with
mud; and--let me see--one of its strings was missing. And, yes, her one
shoe was cut about over the top, as if it had been done on purpose with
a knife. She had evidently been in very bad hands, poor little mite!" and
the honest, kindly face was darkened with a frown, as Mrs. Burton clenched
her plump fist in her lap.

Miss Jemima had been listening with intense interest, from her position on
the other side of the bed; and now interposed with a question, in her own
quick way.

"What was the pattern of the sun-bonnet? Was it a small, pink sprig, on a
white ground?"

"Why, you must have seen it, ma'am!" was Mrs. Burton's startled reply.
"That was the very thing!"

"Perhaps I have," responded Miss Jemima, "and perhaps I haven't."

Mrs. Burton hardly knew what to say.

"Well," she resumed, at last, "Miss Owen has kept the sun-bonnet, and the
one shoe, and two or three other little things; and I'm sure she will be
glad to let you see them. But, may I ask, Miss Horn, what----"

But "Cobbler" Horn interrupted her.

"I think, Jemima, we had now better tell our kind friends why we are
asking these questions."

"Yes," said Miss Jemima; "I should have told them at first."

"Well," resumed "Cobbler" Horn, turning to Mr. and Mrs. Burton, and
speaking with an emotion which he could no longer conceal, "we have reason
to believe that your adopted daughter--don't let me shock you--is our
little lost Marian, of whom you have several times heard me speak; and we
are anxious to make sure if this is really the case."

In the nature of things, Mr. and Mrs. Burton were not so much surprised
as they would have been if the course of events had not, in some measure,
prepared them for the announcement which "Cobbler" Horn had now made. Yet
they experienced a slight shock; for even an expected crisis cannot be
fully realized till it actually arrives.

For a moment, there was silence in the room. Then Mrs. Burton was the
first to speak.

"Excuse us, dear sir," she said calmly, "if we