door, not to lose her ticket, not to forget her
box, or the name of the station she was going to. Finally, to be a good
gal and mind her work, and remember to say her prayers, and to give Mrs
Lane's dooty to her mistress. All of which she promised, and presently
found herself seated in a third-class carriage clasping in one hand her
cotton umbrella, and in the other a small shiny black bag which Mrs
Lane called a "ridicule." Then, when she saw her mother standing alone
on the platform, she began to wake up and to feel that it was no dream
or anything like one. She was really setting forth by herself for a
"lonesome" place where there would be no mother. Mother had scolded
sometimes, and said sharp things on washing days, but she was fond of
Biddy, and proud of her too, and Biddy knew it; the tears rose to her
eyes as the train moved away, and as long as she could she waved the
"ridicule" in answer to mother's energetic farewells with her umbrella.
But soon, the train quickening its pace, the familiar figure was lost to
sight--checked shawl, best black bonnet, gingham umbrella, all vanished,
and Biddy was alone, whirling along rapidly towards strange places and
people.

Then, for one minute, she felt she must "give way," but not having been
used to such a luxury in Buzley's Court, where there was never a moment
to spare, she thought better of it, winked back the tears, and sat very
upright.

Soon there were plenty of surprising things to be seen out of the
window, and first the exceeding greenness of the landscape struck her
with astonishment, although it was November and the trees were bare.
Then, as she got further into the country, she wondered to see so few
houses. "Where does the folks bide?" she said to herself. It seemed an
empty sort of place, with nothing going on, and Mrs Roy had been quite
right when she had said, "The country's not at all like London."
Biddy's round brown eyes were still staring out of the window with a
fixed expression of surprise when the short winter day began to close
in, and a misty gloom spread over the fields and hills as they seemed to
chase each other hurriedly past. But though she still tried to look
out, and sat stiffly upright in her corner, her head nodded forward now
and then, and the whirr and rattle of the train sounded with a sort of
sing-song in her weary ears. She struggled to keep awake, but her
eyelids seemed pressed down by some determined hand, and at last she