The Project Gutenberg eBook, Hetty Gray, by Rosa Mulholland

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Title: Hetty Gray
Nobody's Bairn

Author: Rosa Mulholland

Release Date: April 4, 2005 [eBook #15538]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HETTY GRAY***

E-text prepared by Malcolm Farmer and the Project Gutenberg Online
Distributed Proofreading Team

HETTY GRAY

or, Nobody's Bairn

by

ROSA MULHOLLAND (LADY GILBERT)

CONTENTS

I. FOUR YEARS OLD

II. UNDER THE HORSES' FEET

III. ADOPTED

IV. MRS. KANE IN TROUBLE

V. A LONELY CHILD

VI. HETTY AND HER "COUSINS"

VII. HETTY'S FIRST LESSONS

VIII. HETTY DESOLATE

IX. WHAT TO DO WITH HER?

X. THE NEW HOME

XI. HETTY TURNS REBEL

XII. A COTTAGE CHILD AGAIN

XIII. A TRICK ON THE GOVERNESS

XIV. HETTY'S CONSTANCY

XV. THE CHILDREN'S DANCE

XVI. A TRIAL OF PATIENCE

XVII. HETTY'S FUTURE IS PLANNED

XVIII. REINE GAYTHORNE

XIX. IF SHE WAS DROWNED, HOW CAN SHE BE HETTY?

XX. HAPPY HETTY

CHAPTER I.

FOUR YEARS OLD.

In all England there is not a prettier village than Wavertree. It has no
streets; but the cottages stand about the roads in twos and threes, with
their red-tiled roofs, and their little gardens, and hedges overrun with
flowering weeds. Under a great sycamore tree at the foot of a hill
stands the forge, a cave of fire glowing in the shadows, a favourite
place for the children to linger on their way to school, watching the
smith hammering at his burning bars, and hearing him ring his cheery
chimes on the anvil. Who shall say what mystery surrounds the big smith,
as he strides about among his fires, to the wide bright eyes that peer
in at him from under baby brows, or what meanings come out of his
clinking music to four-year-old or eight-year-old ears?

Little Hetty was only four years old when she stood for five or ten
minutes of one long summer day looking in at the forge, and watching and
listening with all the energy that belonged to her. She had a little
round pink face with large bro