t any attention. She was quite in the shade
under her hedge-row, and it is to be doubted if any one saw her. At
last from utter weariness she sank down on the ground and fell asleep.
The Pink curled herself up by her little mistress's side and slept
also. It was then that the sun, slowly travelling across the heavens,
found them out in their shady corner, and kissed them, and made
pussy's soft little grey coat shine. The child and the cat were thus
made visible, and attracted the attention of a woman who was walking
across the field with a market-basket on her arm. She came up at once
to examine the little group; then she bent down close, then she gave
an exclamation half of horror, half of delight, and then she took the
sleeping child up in her arms, and covered her with passionate kisses.

[Illustration: SHE CAME UP TO EXAMINE THE LITTLE GROUP. Palace B]

"Oh! my own little Miss Daisy--my own little darling precious lamb!
And is it thus you have come back to your poor old Hannah again!"

Nothing could have comforted Daisy more under present circumstances
than to find herself in her old nurse's arms. She quite gasped with
the joy and relief, and putting up her little hand to Hannah's face,
she stroked it fondly.

"Now, my darling, where have you come from? and what are you doing?
and--why, if that isn't the little Pink, I declare! Now, my pet, tell
me, have you all three come back to Rosebury again?"

"No, Hannah, I'm the only one who has come back. Oh Hannah, will you
please take me to our little cottage for a few hours--I should so like
to die there--I was born there, wasn't I, Hannah?"

"Yes, love, but you're not going to die there, nor nowhere else. I
can't take you back to the cottage, dearie, for it's let, and I'm not
living there. I've a little bit of a place of my own in the village of
Teckford and I keep a small shop, and don't do so bad. You must come
home now with me, darling. Oh, yes, you must--not a word must you say
against it; then, when you've rested, and have had some nice bread and
milk, you shall tell old Hannah your story; and if so be as you're in
any trouble, why, your old nurse Hannah will set her wits to work to
find a way out of it. Now, my darling, I'm going to carry you to my
cottage."

Daisy was certainly very weak. She tried to expostulate with
Hannah--she tried to say that her one and only duty was to try and get
tidings of Mrs. Ellsworthy's whereabouts, and then to follow her on
f