the hopper."

"Oh, sir!" cried the nurse, now thoroughly alarmed, "give me the
young lady back again. Deary, deary me! I'd no notion it was so
dangerous. Oh, don't, sir! don't!"

"Tut, tut! I'll hold un safe, ma'am," said the windmiller, who had
all a man's dislike for shirking at the last moment what had once
been decided upon; and, as the nurse afterwards expressed it, before
she had time to scream, he had tucked Miss Amabel Adeline Ammaby's
finery well round her, and had dipped her into the hopper and out
again.

In that moment of suspense both the women had been silent, and the
little Jan had gazed steadily at the operation. As it safely ended,
they both broke simultaneously into words.

"You might have knocked me down with a feather, mum!" gasped Mrs.
Lake. "I couldn't look, mum. I couldn't have looked to save my
life. I turned my back."

"I'd back 'ee allus to do the silliest thing as could be done,
missus," said the miller, who had a pleasant husbandly way of
commenting upon his wife's conversation to her disparagement, when
she talked before him.

"As for me, ma'am," the nurse said, "I couldn't take my eyes off the
dear child's hood. But move,--no thank you, ma'am,--I couldn't have
moved hand or foot for a five-pound note, paid upon the spot."