all over it, and I think they were a little puzzled how to get rid of me.
They had no doubt watched me for a long time, and now they had got my
clothes, they were afraid.--At last one night they took me out. My aunt,
if aunt she is, was respectably dressed--that is, comparatively, and the
man had a great-coat on, which covered his dirty clothes. They helped me
into a cart which stood at the door, and drove off. I resolved to watch
the way we went. But we took so many turnings through narrow streets
before we came out in a main road, that I soon found it was all one mass
of confusion in my head; and it was too dark to read any of the names of
the streets, for the man kept as much in the middle of the road as
possible. We drove some miles, I should think, before we stopped at the
gate of a small house with a big porch, which stood alone. My aunt got out
and went up to the house, and was admitted. After a few minutes, she
returned, and making me get out, she led me up to the house, where an
elderly lady stood, holding the door half open. When we reached it, my
aunt gave me a sort of shove in, saying to the lady, 'There she is.' Then
she said to me: 'Come now be a good girl and don't tell lies,' and turning
hastily, ran down the steps, and got into the cart at the gate, which
drove off at once the way we had come. The lady looked at me from head to
foot sternly but kindly too, I thought, and so glad was I to find myself
clear of those dreadful creatures, that I burst out crying. She instantly
began to read me a lecture on the privilege of being placed with Christian
people, who would instruct me how my soul might be saved, and teach me to
lead an honest and virtuous life. I tried to say that I had led an honest
life. But as often as I opened my mouth to tell anything about myself
or my uncle, or, indeed, to say anything at all, I was stopped by her
saying--'Now don't tell lies. Whatever you do, don't tell lies.' This shut
me up quite. I could not speak when I knew she would not believe me. But I
did not cry, I only felt my face get very hot, and somehow my back-bone
grew longer, though I felt my eyes fixed on the ground.