"I have not nearly finished yet,
and it fidgets me to hear you sighing in such a despairing way."

"It's only because I'm afraid of not having time to buy all the things
we want if we stay here so long," explained Madge.

"Why, what do you want?"

"Oh, Miss Thompson! You know we have five shillings and sevenpence to
spend!" cried Madge reproachfully. "And we all want a nice thing
apiece out of it, and one or two little extra things if there is money
enough."

"And you have not yet decided on what you are going to buy, I suppose,"
said Miss Thompson; "and are waiting to choose until you get into the
right sort of shop?"

Madge admitted that this was the case.

"But if I may go outside and walk up and down the street, I dare say I
shall find something in the windows by the time you are ready," she
added.

Miss Thompson thought this rather a good plan, as she knew from past
experience what a very long time it always took the children to decide
on how to lay out their money to the best advantage. So after Madge
had been solemnly warned not to wander far, she was allowed to go out
in the street by herself for a few minutes.

It was an exciting moment when the little girl found herself walking
sedately up the pavement alone. She had never been quite so
independent before in her life, and she hoped that the passers-by all
noticed there was not any grown-up person in charge of her. But they
were mostly too occupied to take any interest in this event. Possibly
there were so many little girls in Churchbury that the appearance of
one extra did not strike people as particularly remarkable.

At any rate Madge herself felt all the importance of the occasion. She
walked soberly along with the heavy little brown bag hanging from her
wrist by its string. Secured in this way, there was no chance of her
forgetting its existence and leaving it on the counter of a shop. She
had done this once with a purse, and Miss Thompson had been obliged to
go back to most of the places where she had been shopping before she
could recover it for Madge. But a brown bag tied firmly round the
wrist of its owner really seemed safe from any sort of accident.

Madge had no wish to wander far away, but unfortunately the dulness of
the large linen-draper's shop that she had just left seemed to pervade
its neighbours on either side; for about fifty yards there was nothing
to be seen but highly respectable and uninteresting tailors' and
sho