ood,
birdless and beastless; there was not even a rabbit to be seen, or a
crow high in air to break the silence.

"I don't believe the Queen ever saw such a lonesome trail as this,"
said Mrs. Todd, as if she followed the thoughts that were in my mind.
Our visit to Mrs. Abby Martin seemed in some strange way to concern the
high affairs of royalty. I had just been thinking of English
landscapes, and of the solemn hills of Scotland with their lonely
cottages and stone-walled sheepfolds, and the wandering flocks on high
cloudy pastures. I had often been struck by the quick interest and
familiar allusion to certain members of the royal house which one found
in distant neighborhoods of New England; whether some old instincts of
personal loyalty have survived all changes of time and national
vicissitudes, or whether it is only that the Queen's own character and
disposition have won friends for her so far away, it is impossible to
tell. But to hear of a twin sister was the most surprising proof of
intimacy of all, and I must confess that there was something remarkably
exciting to the imagination in my morning walk. To think of being
presented at Court in the usual way was for the moment quite
commonplace.

III.

Mrs. Todd was swinging her basket to and fro like a schoolgirl as she
walked, and at this moment it slipped from her hand and rolled lightly
along the ground as if there were nothing in it. I picked it up and
gave it to her, whereupon she lifted the cover and looked in with
anxiety.

"'T is only a few little things, but I don't want to lose 'em," she
explained humbly. "'T was lucky you took the other basket if I was
goin' to roll it round. Mis' Abby Martin complained o' lacking some
pretty pink silk to finish one o' her little frames, an' I thought I 'd
carry her some, and I had a bunch o' gold thread that had been in a box
o' mine this twenty year. I never was one to do much fancy work, but
we 're all liable to be swept away by fashion. And then there's a
small packet o' very choice herbs that I gave a good deal of attention
to; they 'll smarten her up and give her the best of appetites, come
spring. She was tellin' me that spring weather is very wiltin' an'
tryin' to her, and she was beginnin' to dread it already. Mother 's
just the same way; if I could prevail on mother to take some o' these
remedies in good season 'twould make a world o' difference, but she
gets all down hill before I have a cha