122 THE HISTORY OF

1 fear that you have not been so good a girl as
you should have been. My nephew, William
Ball, has told me of your tricks, before now;
but no good ever comes of girls when they get
acquainted with those fine fellows in red
coats.”

I was going to make some answer, when Mrs.
Flemming, raising her voice still louder than
she had done when she spoke to me first, bade
me not be saucy, but mind what her husband
said to me.

“Let me tell you, young woman,” said the
farmer, “‘ that you, who are come of such ho-
nest parents, might be ashamed of having done
as you have done. Your father and mother
were as good people as any in the parish, and
if it had not been for the respect I bad for
them, you should never bave worked for me.”

So saying, he turned into the house, and my
new mistress bade me follow the other hay-
makers out of the yard.

Oh! with what a sorrowful heart did I walk
slowly after the rest, till we came into a wide
field, which is skirted on one side by that large
wood now in our view, and is bordered on the
other by the brook which runs into the river
by the mill.

My companions had heard what the farmer
and his wife had said to me, and I soon found
what they thought of me; for the old women
looked very sour at me, and the young ones
laughed and whispered, glancing slily, at the
same time, at me.

But what grieved me most was, that the