Caspar sat down on a stone, and taking her in his lap endeavoured to soothe her, but it was no easy task. She was a very pretty child, and had been neatly dressed, but her clothes were torn and stained and her little shoes nearly worn from her feet. "Hush, hush, little dear!" said Caspar, pressing the little dark head against his breast and holding the hands which clung to him desperately. "The bear is gone; he shall not hurt you nor scare you any more." "It is naughty to cry, I know," sobbed Kitty, finding her voice at last; "but the thing was so ugly and black; and when I told him to go away, he—he—just grinned! He wouldn't mind me a bit!" She sobbed afresh at the remembrance of the bear's disrespectful conduct. "Naughty bear, not to mind the little girl!" said Caspar. "But where dost thou live, little dear?" "My father lives in Bridgeton, but I am staying at Aunt Deborah's," said Kitty; "and I got lost and have been out in the woods all night, and I am so hungry you don't know." Caspar put his hand in his pocket and drew out a couple of hard biscuits, which Kitty eagerly seized upon. "But don't you want some yourself?" she asked after she had eaten one. "Oh no; I have had my breakfast. But now try and tell me where thy aunt lives. Is it on the river here?" "Yes; it is on the river, right across from Greenwich," explained Kitty with her mouth full of biscuit. "Aunt Deborah preaches in the meeting at Greenwich, and it was that that made me get lost." "How so?" asked Caspar, much wondering what sort of an aunt it was that preached. "Why, she went to meeting and she wouldn't take me, and I was angry, and so I ran away and got lost. It was very naughty of me," concluded Kitty, penitently, "because Aunt Deborah is real good generally; only I did want so very much to go and see Elizabeth Fithian's kittens." "But thou shouldst mind what thou art told, my child," said Caspar. "Yes, I know I should, and most generally I do," said Kitty; "but I wanted some magnolias and lady-slippers.—But who are you?" she asked, struck with a new fear. "You are not a Hessian, are you?" "What dost thou know about Hessians?" asked Caspar. "They are wicked men who fight for King George, and kill people, and drive away their cattle," said Kitty. "Recompense Joake said the Hessians would catch me if I went out in the pasture, and cut my head off. You are not a Hessian, are you?" "I am a Hessian, certainly, but I will not hurt thee," said Caspar. "The Hessians are not all bad. I will carry thee home if only we can find the way. I think we had better go down to the river and take to the boat. If thy home is up the river, we shall reach it sooner in that way." "There, now! I shall tell Recompense Joake that he doesn't know everything," said Kitty, in a tone of satisfaction, as they turned toward the bank. "But Hessians do hurt people sometimes?" "Yes, when they are soldiers. That is the trade of a soldier, you know." "And are you not a soldier?'