the hollow of her neck, and her eyes peered out keenly from under her
hat, to make sure no one was watching. There was a door-yard on one
side of the house. She touched the gate-latch as gently as if it had
been a loaded gun, and crept noiselessly along to the side door. Here
she paused. Her heart throbbed loudly; but, in spite of that, she could
hear Norah walking about, and rattling the covers of the stove, as she
put in coal.

Dotty's courage failed. What if Norah should make believe she didn't know
her, and shut the door in her face?

"I can't see Norah, and hear her say, 'What strange little girl is this?
It _looks_ like our Alice; but it can't be any such a child!' No, I can't
see anybody. I've finished my visit; I have a right to come home; but
p'rhaps they won't think so. I feel's if I wasn't half so good as
tea-grounds, or coffee-grounds, or potato-skins," continued she, with a
pang of despair. "I know what I'll do; I'll go down cellar; that's where
the rats stay; and if I _am_ bad, I hope I'm as good as a rat, for I
don't bite."

One of the cellar windows had been left out in order to admit coal.
Through this window crept Dotty, regardless of her white stockings and
crimson dress. When she had fairly got her head through the opening, and
was no longer afraid of being seen, she breathed more freely.

"Here I am! Not a bit of me out. But I must go on my tipsy-toes, or
they'll hear me, and think it's a _buggler_"

There was quite a steep hill to walk over, and she found it anything
but a path of roses. Once or twice she stumbled and fell upon her hands