From this terrible dilemma I was relieved by meeting with a servant of the house, who was looking for the vagrants. He called to another, and I was soon relieved from my burden, who had conquered me, and had composedly laid down on the ground. I followed the person who bore the child in his arms to the house, and the other man went forwards to the succour of the poor abandoned boy. A neat and genteel-looking woman met us in the yard, whom, from her terror and grief, I supposed to be their mother. I tried to allay her fears, but finding that was not possible, contented myself with supplying her duty. She carried the boy to the kitchen fire, and, weeping bitterly, began to chafe his hands. My authoritative voice was at length heard, and in spite of his outcries he was put to bed in the blankets. Happily the village farrier was present, and supported me in my opinion. He said he had read some published cases of the Humane Society, and that he would answer for the other child if they would trust to him. The child appeared, and my shawl having been useful, he was judged to be in no danger by the doctor, who began his operations by rubbing him with snow. The children being considered as safe, I was next thought of. With many excuses the young woman led me through a large brick-floored parlour to a neat staircase, which conducted us to a very pretty snug room, in which was quietly seated an old lady knitting; and who had, as it appeared, escaped the general horror of the family in the kitchen, by being somewhat deaf and lame. She looked surprised by my intrusion, but instantly enquired whether the children were returned. The daughter, with more self-command than I expected, replied in the affirmative, adding that I had been so good as to lead them home. Her face betrayed, however, in part, the disaster, and I assured the grandmother that the danger was past and both children doing well. Her thanks for my services were followed by her "being certain I wanted some refreshment." She was not mistaken, for I was faint with hunger. Her little dinner was just ready, and she thought something warm and comfortable better for me than wine. I was entirely of the same opinion. Susan was dispatched to hasten matters below stairs; whilst with officious zeal I was placed in her own white dimity easy chair, and the hearth was replenished with fuel. The neatness of the apartment, the order which presided at the dining-table, the delicacy of my napkin, and the china in which was served a boiled fowl with vegetables and bacon, and a bread-pudding, excited in my mind a curiosity to know something more of my courteous hosts, concluding that these relics of former opulence did not belong to the miller's lady. I had no sooner obeyed the calls of my famished stomach, than I thought of my friends at the hall, and dispatched a note to Mrs. Allen, informing her simply, that, finding the air too sharp for me, I had stopped at the mill till the coach came for me.