ng and
fetch away the basket?"

The moment Susan conceived this idea she resolved to put it into
execution. She looked around her hastily: no teacher was in sight, Miss
Good was away at the lodge, Miss Danesbury was playing with the little
children. Mademoiselle, she knew, had gone indoors with a bad headache.
She left the broad walk where she had been desired to stay, and plunging
into the shrubbery, soon reached Betty's paling. In a moment she had
climbed the bars, had jumped lightly into the field, and was running as
fast as possible in the direction of Betty's cottage. She reached the
high road, and started and trembled violently as a carriage with some
ladies and gentlemen passed her. She thought she recognized the faces of
the two little Misses Bruce, but did not dare to look at them, and
hurried panting along the road, and hoping she might be mistaken.

In less than a quarter of an hour she had reached Betty's little cottage,
and was standing trying to recover her breath by the shut door. The place
had a deserted look, and several overripe cherries had fallen from the
trees and were lying neglected on the ground. Susan knocked impatiently.
There was no discernible answer. She had no time to wait, she lifted the
latch, which yielded to her pressure, and went in.

Poor old Betty, crippled, and in severe pain with rheumatism, was lying
on her little bed.

"Eh, dear--and is that you, my pretty missy?" she asked, as Susan, hot
and tired, came up to her side.

"Oh, Betty, are you ill?" asked Miss Drummond "I came to tell you you
have forgotten the basket."

"No, my dear, no--not forgot. By no means that, lovey; but I has been
took with the rheumatism this past week, and can't move hand or foot. I
was wondering how you'd do without your cakes and tartlets, dear, and to
think of them cherries lying there good for nothing on the ground is
enough to break one's 'eart."

"So it is," said Susan, giving an appreciative glance toward the open
door. "They are beautiful cherries, and full of juice, I am sure. I'll
take a few, Betty, as I am going out, and pay you for them another day.
But what I have come about now is the basket. You must get the basket
away, however ill you are. If the basket is discovered we are all lost,
and then good-by to your gains."

"Well, missy, dear, if I could crawl on my hands and knees I'd go and
fetch it, rather than you should be worried; but I can't set foot to the
ground at all. The do