“I walked all the way!” said the child, with a sigh. “My little bones ache so, you can't think.--My mamma, when she knew she was going to die in a day or two, gave me some money, and told me to go to The White Hart, with a little paper of directions she folded it up in, for the coachman; and she said, that he would give me something to eat on the road, and carry me within three miles of your house: but I wasn't to tell him where I was going; and she told me to carry the paper and money to him the day after she was buried. But,--do you know?--the people where we lodged found the paper, and took the money out; and said, I shouldn't go unless I told them who I was going to, and why, and all about it But I wouldn't, because my mamma charged me to tell nobody but Sir Waldron;--that's you,--my papa. So then, I said to myself I'd walk,--for the place where the coachman was to leave me didn't seem very far in my sampler:--but sometimes I thought I should never get here. And I brought my sampler with me to find out the way; but it was all wrong, bless you! there's no red line between Somersetshire and Devonshire, like that I worked in the sampler; so I kept on asking my way.” “My dear little cherub!” exclaimed Sir Waldron; “what thou must have endured!--And where did you sleep?” “Oh! the people was hay-making, and I lay down upon the nice little hay-cocks;--its no night, hardly, now.--I liked it at first; but I'm stung all over with flies, or something--” “And did you beg for food?” “Oh! no! I brought all my pretty money, and spent it in gingerbread and apples;--not all,--for I've two Queen Anne shillings, and another bit of money, I don't know what it is, left.” Agnes, in answer to several other questions put to her by Sir Waldron, told him, that she often followed the waggons, and, in a very early part of the journey, saw the names of several places painted on the boot of a coach, before that one where the coachman was directed, by her mother's paper, to set her down; that she learnt them by heart, and inquired for each, successively: she also related the manner of her meeting with the pedlar and his companions, and stated, that a woman had told her, just before she saw them, that there was a revel at the village, to which, she was inquiring the Way. Sir Waldron was still undecided as to what he should do with Agnes, and sat pondering, with the little girl seated on his knee, and warming her feet with one of his hands, when the child suddenly started from him, and exclaimed, “Oh, dear! I quite forgot the letter!” “Letter! from your mother?” “Yes; the people of the house didn't find out that, when they took the money that was in the paper of directions away from me. I brought it all the way safe enough in my bosom, until this morning.” “And where is it now?” “That naughty constable took it from me. He opened it and read it.” “D--t--n!” exclaimed Sir Waldron; “then all is known, and I shall be every booby's jest.”