ulness. "What with the shouting and the barking and
confusion, I couldn't make out anything, or hear what you said, and I
thought for certain they'd got away with the poor things;" and she
patted Dick's head again, to his great delight and Huldah's.
"I must sit down, I am that shaken," and she crept over to a chair
and dropped into it wearily, "and I am sure you must be too, child.
I wish the fire hadn't gone out; it seems chilly now, for all 'twas
such a hot day,--at least, I am chilly."

"Let me light up the fire for you?" asked Huldah, eagerly. "You do
look cold, ma'am. Shall I make you a cup of tea, or get you some
milk or something?"

The scene they had just passed through seemed to have broken down
some barrier, and drawn them as close together as though they had
known each other a long time.

Martha Perry hesitated a moment, though not now because she
distrusted Huldah. She was thinking, ought she to afford it?"
Yes, child," she answered, at last. "I don't believe I could sleep
if I went to bed as I am, I feel all unstrung and chilled." Then her
mind went back to the thought which troubled her most--"I wonder if
the fowls will be really all right," she mused, anxiously.

"Oh yes, ma'am." Huldah had no doubts on that point. "Those fellows
would be afraid to come back. Dick did give them a scare, springing
out of the dark on them like that, and they're too hurt about the
legs to want to walk any further than they can help, yet awhile!"

"Oh yes, of course," in accents of great relief, "I'd forgotten.
They wouldn't want to come and face Dick again, and they wouldn't
know but what he was mine, and always living here."

A bright idea came to Huldah. "Would you like me to let Dick out
into the garden again. He'd see that nobody came into it.
Nobody wouldn't dare touch anything with him there, I know!"

The suggestion evidently pleased Mrs. Perry, and relieved her
greatly. "Now that would be a comfort," she said, gratefully.
"I'd feel ever so safe then. On a warm night like this he can't
hurt, can he?"

Huldah laughed. "Dick doesn't know what 'tis to sleep in," she said.
"The most he ever had was a sack thrown down under the van, unless
when Charlie was put in a stable, and they'd let Dick go in too, but
Uncle Tom liked best to have him about, to guard the van."

All the time she was talking she was laying in the fire quickly and
deftly. Mrs. Perry watched her interestedly. She felt the comfort