THE SILVER LAKE stories. 133

they thought they were not safe
alone. |

It is to be looked upon as a happy
circumstance, that this contagion did
not spread very far, for all the family
would have been obliged to move in a
body; but there was no danger of any-
thing happening so ridiculous as that.
It is, on the contrary, very surprising,
that so intelligent a little girl as Sophie
Benson should have had such a weak-
ness, and that she never gave herself
the trouble to reflect that there could
not be the slightest foundation for the
terrors with which her head was filled.

Her mamma had sought in vain to