d, 'but I can just as well get down
and find it myself.'

So saying, she climbed down from the bed, and put on her shoes and
stockings, singing gently all the time, 'Peep! peep! chippeda dee!'

This was all of Agnes's song that she could remember.

She went toward the fire, wondering who had drawn out the sofa and what
for, and on passing round before it, her wonder was changed into
amazement at finding Hepzibah asleep upon it.

'Why,' she exclaimed, in a very low and gentle tone, just above a
whisper, 'here is Hepzibah. I suppose she is sitting up to watch with
me. How tired she is.'

She stood looking at Hepzibah a minute or two in silence, and then said,
speaking in the same tone and manner as before:

'She is not comfortable. I mean to put her feet upon the sofa.'

So saying, Malleville stooped down, and clasping Hepzibah's feet with
both her arms, she lifted them up as gently as she could, and put them
upon the sofa. Hepzibah's sound sleep was not at all disturbed by this.
In fact, her position being now much more easy than before, she sank
away soon into a slumber deeper and more profound than ever.

Malleville, finding that her first attempt to render Hepzibah a service
was so successful, immediately began to feel a strong interest in taking
care of her, and, observing that her feet were not very well covered as
she lay upon the sofa, she thought it would be a good plan to go and
find something to cover them up. So she went to a bureau which was
standing in the room, and began to open one drawer after another, in
search of a small blanket which was sometimes used for such a purpose.
She found the blanket at length in the lowermost drawer of the bureau.

'Ah! here it is,' said she. 'I knew it was somewhere in this bureau.'

Saying this, she took out the blanket, and carried it to the sofa, doing
everything in as noiseless a manner as possible. She spread the blanket
over Hepzibah's feet, tucking the edges under very gently and carefully
all around.

'Now,' said Malleville to herself, 'I will make up the fire a little, so
that she shall not catch cold.'

There were two sticks remaining of those which Beechnut had brought up,
and they were lying upon the carpet by the side of the fire, near the
rocking-chair in which Beechnut had rocked Malleville to sleep. The wood
which had been put upon the fire had burned entirely down, nothing being
left of them but a few brands in the corners. Malleville took up t