them, after their mother's death; but who was
the Prince?
Finding that the child continued slightly feverish, and most
unnaturally weak--finding that the dainties she prepared were only
just tasted by the little sufferer--Hannah looked well into her little
store of hardly-earned money, and finding that she had sufficient to
pay him, called in the village doctor.
Of course, with his limited experience, this good man could little
understand Daisy's case. He ordered medicine for her, and plenty of
cooling drinks, and said that he could not find anything very much the
matter, only she was most unnaturally weak.
"It's my thinking, sir," said Hannah, "that this is the kind of
weakness that ends in death. My little lady is all on the pine for
something or some one, and unless she gets what she wants soon she
will die."
Hannah's view of the case was rather puzzling to the doctor, who
stared at her, and considered her from that day forward a very
fanciful woman. He repeated his injunctions to give Daisy plenty of
milk, and to see that she took her tonic three times a day; and then
he took his leave.
When he was gone Hannah went to her next-door neighbor and asked her
if she would be so very kind as to go and sit in the child's room for
a couple of hours. Then she put on her bonnet and neat black cloak,
and started off on foot to Rosebury. She had made up her mind to get
Mrs. Ellsworthy's address from some one, and to write to her about
Daisy. In due time she arrived at the lodge, saw the woman who kept
the gates, obtained from her without much difficulty Mrs. Ellsworthy's
address, and then prepared to return home. Just as she reached the
stile, however, which led into the field where she had found Daisy, a
thought struck her--she had no writing-paper in the house, and what
could be bought at Teckford was almost too bad to use. Hannah made up
her mind to go to Rosebury, which was a much more important village
than Teckford, and get a few sheets of note-paper, and an envelope or
two. She walked very fast, for she did not like to leave Daisy so long
by herself, and, panting and hurried, she at last arrived at the
little stationer's shop. The stationer's wife knew Hannah, and greeted
her with effusion.
"I'm truly pleased to see you, Mrs. Martin," she said. "Why you're
quite a stranger in these parts, and I did not expect to see you round
now, with one of your young ladies returned and all."
Hannah heaved a profound
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