first, for her mother and she had to clear up the stall next to the one
Bliros occupied, and put Crookhorn into it. When this was done they
felt exactly as if they had two cows. The goat took her place in the
stall with a self-important, superior air, quite as if she were a real
cow and had never done anything else but stand in a cow stall. Bliros
became offended at this remarkable newcomer, who was putting on such
airs in the cow house that had always belonged to herself alone, and so
she made a lunge with her head and tried to hook the goat with her
horns; but Crookhorn merely turned her own horns against those of
Bliros in the most indifferent manner, as if quite accustomed to being
hooked by cows.

Bliros gazed at her in astonishment. Such a silly goat! She had never
seen such a silly goat. And with that she turned her head to the wall
again and did not give Crookhorn another look.

That evening Lisbeth Longfrock had so many things to tell her mother
that she talked herself fast asleep!

CHAPTER III

LEAVING PEEROUT CASTLE

The next time Lisbeth Longfrock came to Hoel Farm, she did not come
alone; and she came--to stay!

All that had happened between that first visit and her second coming
had been far, far different from anything Lisbeth had ever imagined. It
seemed as if there had been no time for her to think about the strange
events while they were taking place. She did not realize what their
result would be until after she had lived through them and gone out of
the gate of Peerout Castle when everything was over. So much had been
going on in those last sad, solemn days,--so much that was new to see
and to hear,--that although she had felt a lump in her throat the whole
time, she had not had a real cry until at the very end. But when she
had passed through the gate that last day, and had stopped and looked
back, the picture that she then saw had brought the whole clearly
before her, with all its sorrow. Something was gone that would never
come again. She would never again go to Peerout Castle except as a
stranger. She had no home--no home anywhere. And at that she had begun
to weep so bitterly that those who had been thinking how wisely and
quietly she was taking her trouble could but stand and look at her in
wonder.

* * * * *

The last two months of the winter had passed so quickly up at Peerout
Castle that Lisbeth really could not tell what had becom