k her. She burst into a peal
of laughter, and took a step towards the other bars. Then she went
back to her own. Finally, she let down the Belcher bars, and the
Belcher cows crowded out, to the great astonishment of the Wales
cows, who stared over their high rails and mooed uneasily.

Ann drove the Belcher cows home and ushered them into Samuel Wales'
barnyard with speed. Then she went demurely into the house. The table
looked beautiful. Ann was beginning to quake inwardly, though she
still was hugging herself, so to speak, in secret enjoyment of her
own mischief. She had one hope--that supper would be eaten before her
master milked. But the hope was vain. When she saw Mr. Wales come in,
glance her way, and then call his wife out, she knew at once what had
happened, and begun to tremble--she knew perfectly what Mr. Wales was
saying out there. It was this: "That little limb has driven home all
Neighbor Belcher's cows instead of ours; what's going to be done with
her?"

She knew what the answer would be, too. Mrs. Polly was a peremptory
woman.

Back Ann had to go with the Belcher cows, fasten them safely in their
pasture again, and drive her master's home. She was hustled off to
bed, then, without any of that beautiful supper. But she had just
crept into her bed in the small unfinished room up stairs where she
slept, and was lying there sobbing, when she heard a slow, fumbling
step on the stairs. Then the door opened, and Mrs. Deacon Thomas
Wales, Samuel Wales' mother, came in. She was a good old lady, and
had always taken a great fancy to her son's bound girl; and Ann, on
her part, minded her better than any one else. She hid her face in
the tow sheet, when she saw grandma. The old lady had on a long black
silk apron. She held something concealed under it, when she came in.
Presently she displayed it.

"There--child," said she, "here's a piece of sweet cake and a couple
of simballs, that I managed to save out for you. Jest set right up
and eat 'em, and don't ever be so dretful naughty again, or I don't
know what will become of you."

This reproof, tempered with sweetness, had a salutary effect on Ann.
She sat up, and ate her sweet cake and simballs, and sobbed out her
contrition to grandma, and there was a marked improvement in her
conduct for some days.

Mrs. Polly was a born driver. She worked hard herself, and she
expected everybody about her to. The tasks which Ann had set her did
not seem as much out of pro