id Cecil, looking
round to Hester with all the admiration she felt for her friend shining
in her face. The expression, however, which Hester wore at that moment
really startled Cecil; she was absolutely colorless, and presently she
called aloud in a harsh, strained voice:

"Be careful of her! How wicked of you to put her like that on your
shoulder! She will fall--yes, I know she will fall; oh, do be careful!"

Hester's voice startled the children, who ceased singing and dancing;
Annie made a hasty step forward, and one little voice alone kept singing
out the words:

"Humpty-Dumpty got a great fall!"--

when there was a crash and a cry, and Nan, in some inexplicable way, had
fallen backward from Annie's shoulders.

In one instant Hester was in the midst of the group.

"Don't touch her," she said, as Annie flew to pick up the child, who,
falling with some force on her head, had been stunned; "don't touch
her--don't dare! It was your doing; you did it on purpose--you wished to
do it!"

"You are unjust," said Annie, in a low tone. "Nan was perfectly safe
until you startled her. Like all the rest you are unjust. Nan would have
come to no harm if you had not spoken."

Hester did not vouchsafe another word. She sat on the ground with the
unconscious and pretty little flower-crowned figure laid across her lap;
she was terrified, and thought in her inexperience that Nan must be dead.

At the first mention of the accident Cecil had flown to fetch some water,
and when she and Miss Danesbury applied it to little Nan's temples, she
presently sighed, and opened her brown eyes wide.

"I hope--I trust she is not much hurt," said Miss Danesbury; "but I think
it safest to take her home at once. Cecil, dear, can you do anything
about fetching a wagonette round to the stile at the entrance of the
wood? Now the puzzle is, who is to take care of the rest of the little
children? If only they were under Miss Good's care, I should breathe more
easily."

"I am going home with Nan," said Hester in a hard voice.

"Of course, my love; no one would think of parting you from your little
sister," said the governess, soothingly.

"If you please, Miss Danesbury," said Annie, whose face was quite as pale
as Hester's, and her eyes heavy as though she longed to cry, "will you
trust me with the little ones? If you do, I will promise to take them
straight to Miss Good, and to be most careful of them."

Miss Danesbury's gent