imes I've
dreamed I heard it in the long, lonesome nights!" and she wept, laughed,
and kissed her recovered child in a perfect abandonment of joy. "And so
you have come home at last to see your old aunty? I've had awful
feelings about you lately, hinney, and boding dreams; and ofttimes I've
been sorry I let you go into the evil world; 'for if it should use her
hard, would it not break both our hearts?' I said to myself. 'But, then,
Annie is so pretty and good, and has got so much book-learnin' and so
many accomplishments,' something would say. 'Ay, that's the mischief of
it. Such things always make bad folks envy those that possess them, and
Annie is so tender-hearted and shrinking, I'm afeard, I'm afeard for
her.'"

Annie sunk her head on her aunt's shoulder while she was speaking thus,
and the tears, she had been striving to suppress since her entrance,
began to roll over her cheeks thick and fast. The excitement and anxiety
of the journey had in a measure diverted her mind from the events which
caused it; but now that she had gained the wished-for haven, her aunty's
words brought the past before her vision; that mortifying
humiliation--all she had enjoyed, all she had hoped for, and O, all she
had lost!--rushed upon her recollection, and she sobbed aloud.

"O, mercy, mercy, it is as I feared!" exclaimed the old woman, in an
agonized tone; "something has hurt my darling, and now I mark how pale
and thin she is grown. Annie, Annie, tell your aunty what's the matter."

Annie made a strong effort to calm her emotion.

"I am fatigued and overcome," she said.

"Ah! it is something more than that, child--I can tell; but you shall
rest till to-morrow. I'll make you a nice cup of tea, and then you shall
lie in your little cot-bed once more. I've always kept it dressed white
and clean, and often been in there nights before I laid my old bones
down to rest, and wished I could see my darling there, breathing long
and sweet, as she used to, in happy dreams."

Annie was glad to retire, for she was indeed fatigued. Her aunt tucked
the counterpane snugly around her, and hung a shawl before the window,
"for hinney looked too pale and slender to bear the cold air now," she
said. Then she insisted on sitting by the cot till her darling slept;
but Annie begged she would not.

"Go to bed, aunty, and get a good sleep, so as to be rested and fresh to
hear a long tale of my adventures to-morrow," and the kind old soul,
after kissing