die.  And I made haste out of the wood, but I could hear it crying all the while; and when I got out into the fields, it was as if I was held fast—­I couldn’t go away, for all I wanted so to go.  And I sat against the haystack to watch if anybody ’ud come.  I was very hungry, and I’d only a bit of bread left, but I couldn’t go away.  And after ever such a while—­hours and hours—­the man came—­him in a smock-frock, and he looked at me so, I was frightened, and I made haste and went on.  I thought he was going to the wood and would perhaps find the baby.  And I went right on, till I came to a village, a long way off from the wood, and I was very sick, and faint, and hungry.  I got something to eat there, and bought a loaf.  But I was frightened to stay.  I heard the baby crying, and thought the other folks heard it too—­and I went on.  But I was so tired, and it was getting towards dark.  And at last, by the roadside there was a barn—­ever such a way off any house—­like the barn in Abbot’s Close, and I thought I could go in there and hide myself among the hay and straw, and nobody ’ud be likely to come.  I went in, and it was half full o’ trusses of straw, and there was some hay too.  And I made myself a bed, ever so far behind, where nobody could find me; and I was so tired and weak, I went to sleep....But oh, the baby’s crying kept waking me, and I thought that man as looked at me so was come and laying hold of me.  But I must have slept a long while at last, though I didn’t know, for when I got up and went out of the barn, I didn’t know whether it was night or morning.  But it was morning, for it kept getting lighter, and I turned back the way I’d come.  I couldn’t help it, Dinah; it was the baby’s crying made me go—­and yet I was frightened to death.  I thought that man in the smock-frock ’ud see me and know I put the baby there.  But I went on, for all that.  I’d left off thinking about going home—­it had gone out o’ my mind.  I saw nothing but that place in the wood where I’d buried the baby...I see it now.  Oh Dinah! shall I allays see it?”

Hetty clung round Dinah and shuddered again.  The silence seemed long before she went on.

“I met nobody, for it was very early, and I got into the wood....I knew the way to the place...the place against the nut-tree; and I could hear it crying at every step....I thought it was alive....I don’t know whether I was frightened or glad...I don’t know what I felt.  I only know I was in the wood and heard the cry.  I don’t know what I felt till I saw the baby was gone.  And when I’d put it there, I thought I should like somebody to find it and save it from dying; but when I saw it was gone, I was struck like a stone, with fear.  I never thought o’ stirring, I felt so weak.  I knew I couldn’t run away, and everybody as saw me ’ud know about the baby.  My heart went like a stone.  I couldn’t wish or try for anything; it seemed like as if I should stay there for ever, and nothing ’ud ever change.  But they came and took me away.”