h a goose as to stay there long." And he felt more
sorry thinking of how the string would be lying slack until his return
than for treating Hetty so inconsiderately. Trying to put the whole
thing out of his head he began to chatter to his father about something
that had happened at school, and thought no more about the matter till
he had returned home an hour later.

Then he sprang from his pony and ran off to his garden to see if he
could tighten up the string before it became quite dark night. Could he
believe his eyes? There was Hetty holding the string as he had left her.

"Do you mean to say you have been there ever since?" he said in utter
amazement.

"Yes," said Hetty, trying to keep her teeth from chattering. "You told
me not to mind if you were kept a while. And I did not mind."

"But do you know that I have been two hours away, and have had a long
ride with father?" said Mark.

"It seemed a long time," said Hetty; "but I did not know what you were
doing. I promised to stay and I stayed."

"Well, you were a precious goose," he said, taking the string out of her
hand. "Nobody but a stupid of a girl would do such a thing."

Hetty said nothing, but slapped her hands together, and tried to keep
the tears of disappointment from coming into her eyes.

"Here, hold the string a moment longer while I put this peg properly
into the ground. Can't you catch it tight? Oh, your fingers are stiff.
There, that will do for to-night Now, come home and get warm again."

They walked up to the house together. Hetty was too cold, and tired, and
hurt to speak again, and Mark was too much annoyed at his own
carelessness, and what he called Hetty's stupidity, to be able to thank
her, and offer to make friends with her. Hetty went up to her own room
to take off her things, and when she came down to the school-room she
found that the tea was over and she was in disgrace for staying out so
long. Phyllis cast a disapproving glance at her as she entered.
Punctuality was one of Phyllis's virtues. Miss Davis rebuked Hetty for
staying out alone so late.

"I must tell Mrs. Kane," she said, "not to keep you so late when you go
to see her."

Then Hetty was obliged to say that she had not been to see Mrs. Kane.

"Where, then, can you have been for two hours all alone?"

"I was all the time in the grounds," said Hetty.

She had made up her mind that she would not "tell" this time of Mark,
and the consciousness that she was in an awk