got it before."

Mrs Moore took a bottle from under her shawl and looked at it.

"I _did_ bring the bottle with me," she said hesitatingly, "so as there
shouldn't be no mistake."

"All right," said Iris, taking it from her and nodding cheerfully; "I
won't be long, I can run very fast."

"You _might_ happen to meet Moore comin' back, and then he could go and
get it," continued Mrs Moore in an undecided tone.

But Iris did not wait for any further suggestions, she only nodded again
and ran down the garden towards the gate which led into the fields.
What a delightfully free feeling it was! She ran along the narrow
pathway between the tall grass growing on each side, and heard her
skirts brush against it as she passed with a nice whispering noise. The
cool wind blew in her face and rustled in the trees, and made the red
sorrel and daisies and cow-parsley bend and wave at her pleasantly.
"_Now_ I know how a bird feels when it gets out of a cage," she said to
herself, and she was so happy that she sang a little tune. Added to her
pleasure there was a great sense of adventure and even peril about the
journey, for, though she did not confess to herself that she was
disobeying her godmother, she yet knew that to rush over the fields to
Dinham in this way to fetch medicine for Moore's baby was the last thing
she would approve.

Without stopping to consider this, however, or to gather any of the
tempting things growing so near her hand, she ran on, swinging the empty
bottle in the air; on, on, through three long fields, and then she
checked her speed, for in the distance she could see the chimneys of
Dinham, and she knew she could not be far off.

She had often been there with her godmother, but that was by the road,
shut up in a close carriage--now she would arrive on foot, alone, with
her garden hat on, no gloves, and her hair quite rough. It was a very
different matter; the chemist might perhaps think she was some little
wild girl and refuse to give her the medicine. She looked at the label
on the bottle to see his name: Jabez Wrench, High Street, Dinham. She
had been to his shop with Mrs Fotheringham, and she remembered Mr
Wrench. He was a white-faced man with red hair, and he smiled a great
deal. "I shall say I come from Paradise Court," said Iris to herself,
"and then he'll know it's all right."

It was not difficult to find the way when she left the fields, for the
road led straight into the High Street of