CHAPTER II.


A NIGHT SCARE.

Silence! Seconds passed, to Huldah they seemed endless, her heart,
which at first had beat furiously, quieted down until it seemed
scarcely to beat at all. Save for the good-night calls of the birds,
and the sad mooing of a cow in a field not far away, the silence
remained unbroken.

"Perhaps I didn't knock loud enough," thought Huldah, "or whoever's
inside may be gone to sleep."

If her plight had been less desperate, she would never have had the
courage to knock again, but she felt ill and exhausted and
frightened, and something seemed to tell her that here she might find
help. So, after waiting a little longer, she screwed up her courage
again, and rapped once more, this time more loudly; and this time, at
any rate, her knock called forth response. There were sounds of
hasty shuffling steps across the floor, and then a voice, old and
evidently trembling, called through the door, "Who is there?"

Huldah was puzzled how to answer. If she were to say "me," it would
be only foolish, while if she called back, "I am Huldah Bate," her
hearer would not know who Huldah Bate was. However, she had to say
something, so she called back pleadingly, "I am a little girl, Huldah
Bate, and please, ma'am, I'm starving, and--and please open the door.