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Fan : the story of a young girl's life by W. H. (William Henry) Hudson
page 22 of 610 (03%)
went in quest of a shelter of some kind from the rain which was beginning
to fall. The lane was on the east side of the road, and under the hedge
on one hand there was an old ditch overgrown with grass and weeds; here
Fan crouched down under a bush until the shower was over, then got out
and walked on again. Presently she discovered a gap in the hedge large
enough to admit her body, and after peering cautiously through and seeing
no person about, she got into the field. It was small, and the hedge all
round shut out the view on every side; nevertheless it was a relief to be
there, safe out of sight of all men for a little while. She walked on,
still keeping close to the hedge, until she came to a dwarf oak tree,
with a deep hollow in the ground between its trunk and the hedge; the
hollow was half filled with fallen dead leaves, and Fan, turning them
with her foot, found that under the surface they were dry, and this spot
being the most tempting one she had yet seen, she coiled herself up in
the leafy bed to rest. And lying there in the shelter, after eating her
bread, she very soon fell asleep, in spite of the cold.

From her sleep, which lasted for some hours, she woke stiff and chilled
to the marrow. It was late in the day, and the occasional watery gleams
the sun shot through the grey clouds came from low down in the western
sky. She started up, and scarcely able at first to use her sore, cramped
limbs, set out on her return. She was hungry and thirsty and sore--sore
also in mind at her disappointment--and the gusty evening wind blew
chill, and more than one shower of rain fell to wet her; but she reached
Paddington at last. In the Edgware Road the Saturday evening market was
in full progress when she passed, too tired and miserable to take any
interest in the busy bustling scene. And by-and-by the dense moving
crowds, noise of bawling costermongers, and glare of gas and naphtha
torches were left behind, when she reached the welcome gloom and
comparative quiet of her own squalid street. There was also welcome quiet
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