and Jessie was to be taken to Norton.

What a day of wonders that was to Jessie! It seemed almost as though
there were too many good things crowded into one twenty-four hours.

As soon as it was decided that they were to go, her grandfather went
off and borrowed Mrs. Maddock's donkey and the little cart, to drive
them in, for Norton was more than a mile and a half away, and that
was too far, they thought, for Jessie's little feet to walk. So the
cart was brought, and granny and grandfather sat on the little wooden
seat, while Jessie sat on a rug in the bottom of the cart, at their
feet. She liked it better there, she thought, for there was no fear
of her falling out, and she could look all about her and feel quite
safe and comfortable all the time. Granp gave her the whip to hold,
but she had no work to do, for Moses, the donkey, behaved so well, he
never once needed it all the way to Norton.

Jessie was very glad, for she could not bear to think of anything
being punished on such a lovely afternoon. The birds were singing,
the hedges were covered with little green leaves, just bursting
forth. Here and there a blackthorn bush was in full flower, and
filled Jessie with delight. She sat very quiet, looking about her
with a serious happy face, drinking it all in, and evidently thinking
deeply. Her grandfather watched her with the keenest interest.

"I reckon it looks funny to you, don't it, little maid, after all the
streets and houses and bustle you've been accustomed to?" he asked at
last.

Jessie nodded. "There's such lots of room, and no peoples," she said
soberly, "and at home there was such lots of peoples and no room.
Where are they all gone, granp?"

"Gone to London, I reckon," answered granp, with a laugh.
"You'll find it quiet, and you'll miss the shops, little maid."

"Shops!" said granny indignantly; "we shall be in Norton in a little
while now, and there's shops enough there to satisfy any one, I
should hope."

But when they reached the little town, and Jessie was lifted down
from the cart, and put to stand in the street while granny
dismounted, she looked about her, wondering greatly where the shops
could be. There did not seem to be many people here either.
Two sauntered up to look at the donkey-cart, and to pass the time of
day with Mr. Dawson, but that was all. There were no omnibuses, no
motors, no incessant tramp, tramp, tramp, of horses' hoofs, making
the never-ceasing dull roar to