coming. She lived a little way out of the village. Nan saw her
approaching the gate through the rain and mist, with her great blue
umbrella and her long blue double cape and her poke bonnet; and she
cried out in the greatest dismay: "O, mother, mother! there is our
dear Dame Elizabeth coming; she will have to stop too!"

Then they watched her with beating hearts. Dame Elizabeth stared with
astonishment at the people, and stopped to ask them questions. But she
passed quite through their midst, and entered the cottage under the
sprig of dill, and the verse. She did not envy Dame Clementina or Nan,
anything.

"Tell me what this means," said she. "Why are all these people
standing in your yard in the rain with umbrellas?"

[Illustration: SUCH FRANTIC EFFORTS TO GET AWAY.]

Then Dame Clementina and Nan told her. "And oh! what shall we do?"
said they. "Will these people have to stand in our yard forever and
ever?"

Dame Elizabeth stared at them. The way out of the difficulty was so
plain to her, that she could not credit its not being plain to them.

"Why," said she, "don't you take down the sprig of dill and the
verse?"

"Why, sure enough!" said they in amazement. "Why didn't we think of
that before?"