ight for her kind nurse. Nothing
would console her. Her mother bought her a little pony, but she
wouldn't ride it; wonderful dolls, but she wouldn't look at them; the
finest cakes and candies, but she wouldn't eat them; the most
beautiful dresses, but she wouldn't wear them. Matters went on in this
way for I don't know how long, until, finally, one day the little
girl's mother concluded to send for the nurse.

"Now it happened that on that particular day the little girl had made
up her mind to go after her nurse. One day in each week, the gardener
would open the big gates of the park in order to trundle away the
trash and weeds that he had raked up. The little girl watched him open
the gate, and then, when the gardener went for his wheelbarrow, she
slipped out at the gate and went running across the fields.

"For a time the little girl was perfectly happy. She gave herself up
to the pleasure of being alone, of being able to do as she chose, with
no one to tell her not to do this or do that, or to say 'come here,'
or 'go yonder.' So she went running across the fields, looking at the
birds, and trying to catch butterflies, and singing to herself some of
the beautiful songs that her nurse's son had taught her.

"Now it happened that when she ran out of the garden gate, in her
haste to keep out of sight of the gardener, she went away from her
nurse's house instead of going towards it. She had been kept so
closely at home that she had no idea of the great world beyond the
garden gate. She thought that all she had to do to get to her dear
nurse's house was to go out at the gate and keep on going until she
came to the place where there were two big trees, with a swing
between them, and a little white house on the other side.

"So she went on her way, singing and skipping. When she grew tired she
sat down to rest. When she grew thirsty she drank of the clear, cold
water that ran through the fields. When she became hungry, she ate the
berries that grew along the way. She was perfectly satisfied that she
would soon come to her nurse's house. But the sun doesn't stop for
grown people, much less for children, and the little girl soon found
that night was coming on. The only thought she had was that her
nurse's house had been moved farther away, and that by going straight
ahead she would find it after a while.

"So she trudged along. When the sun was nearly down she saw an old man
sitting in the shade of a tree. The little girl