d
around her with a quick and eager glance. Then the color faded from her
face, and her eyes grew dim.

That look of pain on Hester's face was quite enough for kind-hearted
Cecil. She had thrown herself on the grass with an exclamation of
delight, but in an instant she was on her feet.

"Now, of course, the first thing is to find little Nan," she said;
"she'll be missing you dreadfully, Hetty."

Cecil held out her hand to Hester to run with her through the wood, but,
to her surprise, Hester drew back.

"I'm tired," she said; "I daresay we shall find Nan presently. She is
sure to be safe, as she is under Miss Danesbury's care."

Cecil made no remark, but set off by herself to find the little children.
Presently, standing on a little knoll, and putting her two hands round
her lips, so as to form a speaking trumpet, she shouted to Hester. Hester
came slowly and apparently unwillingly toward her, but when she got to
the foot of the knoll, Cecil flew down, and, taking her by the hand, ran
with her to the top.

"Oh, do come quick!" she exclaimed; "it is such a pretty sight."

Down in the valley about fifty yards away were the ten or twelve little
children who formed the infant portion of the school. Miss Danesbury was
sitting at some distance off quietly reading, and the children, decked
with flowers, and carrying tall grasses and reeds in their hands, were
flying round and round in a merry circle, while in their midst, and the
center attraction, stood Annie, whose hat was tossed aside, and whose
bright, curling hair was literally crowned with wild flowers. On Annie's
shoulder stood little Nan, carefully and beautifully poised, and round
Nan's wavy curls was a starry wreath of wood-anemones. Nan was shouting
gleefully and clapping her hands, while Annie balanced her slightest
movement with the greatest agility, and kept her little feet steady on
her shoulders with scarcely an effort. As the children ran round and
round Annie she waltzed gracefully backward and forward to meet them, and
they all sang snatches of nursery rhymes. When Cecil and Hester appeared
they had reached in their varied collection:

"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall."

Here Nan exclaimed, in her clear, high-pitched voice:

"Me no fall, Annie," and the small children on the ground clapped their
hands and blew kisses to her.

"Isn't it pretty? Isn't Annie sweet with children?" sa