could scarcely be concealed from Mrs. Perry.

Something must be done to distract the child's mind, she felt,--but
what? And then, as though to solve the difficulty for her, came an
order for half a dozen of Huldah's pretty baskets.

No other cure she could have found would have been half so good.
Huldah's spirits went up to a pitch of delight such as she had never
known before. She was full of gratitude and of eagerness to begin,
and if Miss Rose had not been able to drive her in to Belmouth that
very day to buy the raffia, there was, as Miss Rose said, no knowing
what might have happened.

Huldah liked the work, and she had done so little lately that the
thought of going back to it was a pleasure in itself, but best of all
was the thought of what she would do with the money when she got it.
That thought kept her in one thrill of joy.

She was to have eighteenpence each for the baskets. Nine whole
shillings! It seemed to Huldah a perfect fortune, and she would
spend the whole of it on Mrs. Perry. She would get her in a store of
coal, in readiness for the winter; then they would be able to have
good fires, and not have to be counting the cost all the time.

That was the first decision. After a time, though, that seemed
rather an uninteresting purchase. All her money would be gone at
once, and almost before she had realised that she had got it.
She next decided to get a large piece of bacon, two sacks of coal,
and a sack of corn for the fowls; but this plan was changed again for
others. Every day Huldah thought out some new and delightful