nds the
same? Instead of being treated as a culprit, she was made a heroine of,
and appreciated the difference.

When Anna had finished crooning over her, and the story of the discovery
had been repeated more than once, she was taken upstairs by Esther, and
washed and changed, so that by the time Miss Ashe returned, instead of the
bedraggled, dirty little maiden of an hour before, she saw only a
perfectly neat and spotless one, and had no suspicion of all that had
taken place during her absence.

Ephraim came into the hall to speak to his mistress just as Poppy came
down the stairs.

"Well, Ephraim, how far did you get with your morning's work? Did you get
the turnip-seed planted?"

"Well, yes, ma'am, I did," said Ephraim slowly. "I made a nice bed for it
right there under the lew wall there in the far corner. But--well,
whatever has come to it since, it passes me to know; when I went away that
there bed was so smooth and tidy as my hand; when I comes back to it--
well, ma'am, you honestly might have knocked me flat with a feather, that
there newly made bed was--well, 'twas more like a mud-heap than anything
you ever saw in your life, ma'am, and trampled--well, out of all shape and
semblance. I neer see'd the likes of it in my life. So soon as it's
dried I'll have to go and do it all again, and have a second sowing, but
it'll be a day or so before it's fit to touch; 'tisn't no use to trust to
that first crop--it's my belief it's all ruined."

Poppy drew up suddenly on her way to the dining-room. Her face had grown
very red, her hands were working nervously. "You--oh, you mustn't disturb
it, please," she gasped. "I--I've planted some thing, and it mustn't be
disturbed, it's _very good_ seed, and I watered it to make it grow
quickly--it--it did look rather muddy, but--but it'll soon dry."

Ephraim stared in dumb bewilderment. Miss Ashe looked from him to the
child and back again, scarcely taking in the situation. She looked again
at Ephraim, but getting no help from him, she turned to Poppy.

"What do you mean, darling? Have you been sowing seeds?"

"Yes," said Poppy, but with marked hesitation. "You shall know soon, but
it's a secret now, and I mustn't tell, only I was afraid he,"--nodding at
Ephraim--"would dig them all up again."

"But, Poppy dear, you shouldn't have done it without asking permission;
you see you might do considerable damage by taking a piece of ground like
that, not knowing whet