truggling to free herself again. 'I will.
Help!'

'A fine for crying out,' said Hugh. 'Ha ha ha! A fine, pretty one, from
your lips. I pay myself! Ha ha ha!'

'Help! help! help!' As she shrieked with the utmost violence she could
exert, a shout was heard in answer, and another, and another.

'Thank Heaven!' cried the girl in an ecstasy. 'Joe, dear Joe, this way.
Help!'

Her assailant paused, and stood irresolute for a moment, but the shouts
drawing nearer and coming quick upon them, forced him to a speedy
decision. He released her, whispered with a menacing look, 'Tell HIM:
and see what follows!' and leaping the hedge, was gone in an instant.
Dolly darted off, and fairly ran into Joe Willet's open arms.

'What is the matter? are you hurt? what was it? who was it? where is
he? what was he like?' with a great many encouraging expressions and
assurances of safety, were the first words Joe poured forth. But poor
little Dolly was so breathless and terrified that for some time she
was quite unable to answer him, and hung upon his shoulder, sobbing and
crying as if her heart would break.

Joe had not the smallest objection to have her hanging on his shoulder;
no, not the least, though it crushed the cherry-coloured ribbons sadly,
and put the smart little hat out of all shape. But he couldn't bear to
see her cry; it went to his very heart. He tried to console her, bent
over her, whispered to her--some say kissed her, but that's a fable. At
any rate he said all the kind and tender things he could think of and
Dolly let him go on and didn't interrupt him once, and it was a good ten
minutes before she was able to raise her head and thank him.

'What was it that frightened you?' said Joe.

A man whose person was unknown to her had followed her, she answered; he
began by begging, and went on to threats of robbery, which he was on the
point of carrying into execution, and would have executed, but for Joe's
timely aid. The hesitation and confusion with which she said this, Joe
attributed to the fright she had sustained, and no suspicion of the
truth occurred to him for a moment.

'Stop when the words are on your lips.' A hundred times that night, and
very often afterwards, when the disclosure was rising to her tongue,
Dolly thought of that, and repressed it. A deeply rooted dread of the
man; the conviction that his ferocious nature, once roused, would stop
at nothing; and the strong assurance that if she impeached him, the