THE GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY.
a basket with us to put flowers in, and blackberries, if we should be so fortunate as to find any.
We walked a long way till Sophy was tired, and became clamorous to sit clown; so Matilda led us to the entrance of a wood, and there we sat and rested on the steps of a stile. There was a cottage near at hand; presently an old woman came out with a kettle in her hand, and I recognized her as the woman to whom I had given my penny. She hobbled to the edge of a little stream which flowed close to our seat, and dipped her kettle in, but did not notice us till Matilda called her.
'How are you, Mrs. Grattan, and how's your old gentleman?'
'Thank you kindly, girl, we be pretty moderate,' was the reply. 'He,' and she pointed with her stick to a field opposite, where several men were at work, 'he be among them picking up stones—ha! ha! He be as blithe as a boy.'
'We was all very glad up at the Grange to hear of your good luck,' said Matilda, in the loudest tones of her cheerful voice, for the old woman was rather deaf. 'Our mistress was main glad, I'll assure you.'
'Ah! very kind on you all. How be the old gentleman?'
'Quite hearty.'
By this time she had reached us, set down her kettle, and taken her place beside Matilda. I was busily plaiting straw, but I listened carelessly to their conversation.
'And so you got your rent paid and all,' said Ma-
