“Coming to herself!” It was the same phrase the good dame had used the night before, and it struck Hilda’s mind with renewed force.  Yes, she had come to herself,—­her new self, which was to be so different from the old.  How strange it all was!  What should she do now, to prove the new Hilda and try her strength?  Something must be done at once; the time for folded hands and listless revery was gone by.

“Shall I—­may I help you to get breakfast?” she asked aloud, rather timidly.

“Breakfast?  Bless you, honey, we had breakfast two hours ago.  We farmers are early birds, you know.  But you can lay a plate and napkin for yourself, if you like, while I drop a couple of fresh eggs and toast a bit of bacon for you.  Do you like bacon, then?”

Rather disappointed at the failure of her first attempt to be useful, Hilda laid the snowy napkin on the shining table, and chose a pretty blue and white plate from the well-stocked shelves of the dresser.

“And now open that cupboard, my lamb,” said her hostess, “and you’ll find the loaf, and a piece of honeycomb, and some raspberries.  I’ll bring a pat of butter and some milk from the dairy, where it’s all cool for you.”

“Raspberries!” cried Hilda.  “Oh, how delightful!  Why, the dew is still on them, Nurse Lucy!  And how pretty they look, with the cool green leaves round them!”

“Ay!” said the good woman, “Jacob brought them in not ten minutes ago.  He thought you would like them fresh from the bushes.”

Hilda’s cheek rivalled the raspberries in bloom as she bent over them to inhale their fragrance.  The farmer had picked these himself for her,—­had probably left his work to do so; and she had called him an odious old savage, and an unkempt monster, and—­oh dear! decidedly, the old Hilda was a very disagreeable girl.  But here were the eggs, each blushing behind its veil of white, and here was the milk, and a little firm nugget in a green leaf, which was too beautiful to be butter, and yet too good to be anything else.  And the new Hilda might eat her breakfast with a thankful heart, and did so.  The white rose nodded to her from the west window much more cordially than it had done the night before.  It even brought out a little new bud to take a peep at the girl who now smiled, instead of scowling across the room.  The vines rustled and shook, and two bright black eyes peeped between the leaves.  “Tweet!” said the robin, ruffling his scarlet waistcoat a little.  “When you have quite finished your worms, you may come out, and I will show you the garden.  There are cherries!” and away he flew, while Hilda laughed and clapped her hands, for she had understood every word.

“May I go out into the garden?” she asked, when she had finished her breakfast and taken her first lesson in dish-washing, in spite of Dame Hartley’s protest.  “And isn’t there something I can do there, please?  I want to work; I don’t want to be idle any longer.”