out quickly, just in time to see her stepping into a
carriage. Then a long line of freight cars obstructed the view. By the
time they had passed them they were beyond even the straggling
outskirts of the village, with wide cornfields stretching in every
direction, and it was of no use to look for her any longer.

Mrs. Estel lost no time in making the young English girl's
acquaintance. She was scarcely settled in her seat before she found an
opportunity. Her umbrella slipped from the rack, and the girl sprang
forward to replace it.

"You have had a tiresome journey," Mrs. Estel remarked pleasantly
after thanking her.

"Yes, indeed, ma'am!" answered the girl, glad of some one to talk to
instead of the children, whose remarks were strictly of an
interrogative nature. It was an easy matter to draw her into
conversation, and in a short time Mrs. Estel was listening to little
scraps of history that made her eyes dim and her heart ache.

[Illustration]

"Do you mind telling me your name?" she asked at length.

"Ellen, ma'am."

"But the other," continued Mrs. Estel.

"We're not to tell, ma'am." Then seeing the look of inquiry on her
face, explained, "Sometimes strangers make trouble, hasking the
little ones hall sorts hof questions; so we've been told not to say
where we're going, nor hany think helse."

"I understand," answered Mrs. Estel quickly. "I ask only because I am
so much interested. I have a little girl at home that I have been away
from for a week, but she has a father and a grandmother and a nurse to
take care of her while I am gone. It makes me feel so sorry for these
poor little things turned out in the world alone."

"Bless you, ma'am!" exclaimed Ellen cheerfully. "The 'omes they're
going to be a sight better than the 'omes they've left behind. Naow
there's 'Enery; 'is mother died hin a drunken fit. 'E never knew
nothink hall 'is life but beating and starving, till the Haid Society
took 'im hin 'and.

"Then there's Sally. Why, Sally's living 'igh naow--hoff the fat hof
the land, has you might say. Heverybody knows 'ow 'er hold huncle
treated 'er!"

Mrs. Estel smiled as she glanced at Sally, to whom the faucet of the
water-cooler seemed a never-failing source of amusement. Ellen had put
a stop to her drinking, which she had been doing at intervals all the
morning, solely for the pleasure of seeing the water stream out when
she turned the stop-cock. Now she had taken a tidy spell. Holding her
bit