Page:The adventures of Ann; stories of colonial times.djvu/69

Rh Wild with joy, she came, at last, upon her sitting on a fallen hemlock-tree, her pretty face pale, and her sweet blue eyes strained with terror.

"O Hannah!" "O Ann!"

"How did you ever get here, Hannah?"

"I—started for aunt Sarah's—that morning," explained Hannah, between sobs. " And — I got frightened, in the woods, about a mile from father's. I saw something ahead, I thought was a bear. A great black thing! Then I ran—and, somehow, the first thing I knew, I was lost. I walked and walked, and it seems to me I kept coming right back to the same place. Finally I sat down here, and staid; I thought it was all the way for me to be found."

"O Hannah, what did you do last night?"

"I staid somewhere, under some pine trees," replied Hannah, with a shudder, "and I kept hearing things—O Ann!"

Ann hugged her sympathizingly. "I guess I wouldn't have slept much if I had known," said she. "O Hannah, you haven't had anything to eat ! ain't you starved?"