She had, though, escaped both fates, and life for the time seemed to Huldah almost too beautiful to be anything but a dream, for it had been arranged that both she and Dick were to stay on for the present with Martha Perry in the cottage.  Since the night of the attempted robbery Mrs. Perry had been very ailing and nervous.  She could not bear Dick to leave the house, when once twilight began to fall, and she would not have stayed there at all at night without him.  She had grown to rely on the lanky yellow creature as though he had been a man.  No harm, she felt, could come to her or her hens, as long as Dick was about the house or garden.

She needed company and help too, so Huldah was to stay on, to keep the cottage tidy, and run the errands, and be at hand, in case Mrs. Perry was ill again.

A tiny room, which was scarcely more than a cupboard or a ‘lean-to’ jutting out over the scullery, was transformed into a bedroom for Huldah.  A little iron bed was sent down from the vicarage, and sheets and blankets, a chair, and even a little square looking-glass to hang on the wall.  Huldah was in a perfect turmoil of glad excitement.  She thought her room perfectly beautiful, and from the little window she could look right over the back garden, and away to a great stretch of country beyond.

“I don’t know what to do for a chest of drawers for you,” said Mrs. Perry, thoughtfully; “you ought to have something to put your clothes in.”  But Huldah pooh-poohed the idea.

“Oh, I shan’t want anything,” she said, cheerfully; “you see I haven’t got any clothes.”

“Ah, but wait,” said Mrs. Perry, knowingly, then stopped abruptly, and said no more.  Huldah did not understand.  “If I can sell some baskets, I’ll be able to get an apron or two,” she said, gravely.  “I’d like fine to have some, but I could keep them on my chair.”

Mrs. Perry smiled.  “A box would be better.  If I could get you a nice big box, that would do for the time, wouldn’t it?”

“Oh yes, that would do grand,” agreed Huldah, readily, “but don’t you worry about it, ma’am.  I’ve got to make my baskets first and sell them, and then I’ll have the aprons to make; there won’t be any need to worry till I’ve got them,” she added, in her old-fashioned thoughtful way.  “Wouldn’t it be lovely, ma’am,” she added, a moment later, “to have a new frock, a whole real new one?” It took a moment for such a possibility to even enter her head.  “A blue one,” she added, revelling in it, now it had come, “and a blue hat, too!  Oh my!” She looked at Mrs. Perry with clasped hands and eyes full of rapture.  “I’ve never had a new frock or hat, not in all my life.  I suppose some people do?”

“Yes, some do,” agreed Mrs. Perry, gravely.  Then a bright smile passed over her face, and her eyes lighted up almost as eagerly as Huldah’s had, a moment before.  Miss Carew’s pony-cart had come jingling down the lane, and had drawn up before the garden gate.