68 MADGE’S MISTAKE,

if I could, but I must make haste and hide
them, so if you wouldn’t just mind taking
them out of the carriage carefully, Pll be off
at once.”

“Maybe I shall get a chance of seeing
them at the show, Miss Madge,” Simmons
remarks, as, having got a pot tucked comfort-
ably under each arm, I am on the point of
departing, feeling that it is dangerous to stay
talking there. I shake my head doubtfully
at this suggestion, and make a rush of it
through the back gate to the barn.

I am only just in time, for as I step in I
hear Simmons in the distance, saying:

“Yes, sir, I found that we was getting
short of beans, sir, so as I thought the pony
could best be spared, I sent James out along
with him.”

I tremble to think what a narrow escape
I’ve had, for it is evident that I have only
just missed meeting Father face to face, and
as I place my two treasures safe behind an
old wheel-barrow, which has been placed there
as “unloadworthy,” I feel eternally grateful