“I don’t want anything but a cup of tea and a piece of toast now,” said her grandmother in answer to Jessie’s question.

“Won’t you have some of the jelly Miss Barley brought you?”

“No, child.  I feel much more inclined for a cup of tea.  If you’ve got any fire in I’d like a slice of toast, but if you haven’t I’ll have a piece of dry bread.  I dare say you’d like one of the little apple pasties Mrs. Maddock brought over.”

Mrs. Maddock was the wife of the farmer who lived a little way from them, along the road to the four turnings.

“Yes, I would,” said Jessie, “I am hungry.”

“I don’t wonder,” said her grandmother, smiling, “working as you have been.  Why, there won’t be anything left for me to do when I get up.  Is the kettle nearly boiling?”

“Yes,” said Jessie, “it is singing.  I’ll have to step over to Mrs. Maddock’s for the milk, and by the time I come back it will be ready.  Will you be all right, granny, while I’m gone?  I won’t be away more than five minutes.”

“Yes, I shall be all right, child; I’ll promise not to run away, and I don’t suppose any burglar will break in here,” she laughed gently.

“Well, I could soon catch you, if you did,” laughed Jessie, “but I don’t know about a burglar, I would have to run to Mrs. Maddock’s again and borrow their dog.  Good-bye, granny.”

“Put on your hat and coat,” granny called after her.

“Oh, need I?” asked Jessie, with just a shade of impatience in her voice.

“Why, yes, child, it is quite chilly, and you have been so hot over your work.”

So Jessie stayed a moment in the kitchen to put on her hat and coat—­ and oh, how glad she was of it before that night was ended—­and taking her milk-can in one hand and a penny in the other, away she ran down the garden and out into the road.  She stood for a moment and glanced along the road in each direction, just to make sure that there was no one near who would be likely to knock and disturb her grandmother before she got back again, but there was not a living creature in sight, that she could see, so on she ran to the farm.  Mrs. Maddock kept her a minute or two to inquire after Mrs. Dawson, and to give her a flower to wear to church the next day, then Jessie hurried away again as fast as her full milk-can would allow her.

The side entrance to the farm, to which Jessie had to go, was a few hundred yards down a lane which branched off the main road.  When she came out and down this lane again, a man was standing at the end of it where it emerged on to the high road.  He was standing looking down the lane very eagerly at first, but, as Jessie drew nearer, he stepped back a pace or two, and looked nervously first over one shoulder and then over the other, along the high road.

Jessie was ten years old, and accustomed to seeing strange rough-looking men about, so that there seemed no reason why she should feel frightened, but she did, and for a moment almost turned and ran back to the friendly shelter of Mrs. Maddock’s dairy.  Later on she often wished she had, but then, as she told herself, he would probably have run after her and caught her.