_BDSTE. 9

. How the shadows danced then, and laughed silently!
“She'll do! she'll do!” they said; but the lady did not hear
them, or, if she had heard, she would have thought it only the
‘rustle of dry leaves on the ground,

“See that one,” she went on; “it looks like an old woman;
no, like a man with a cap on; and, I declare, that is a real hand
with a pointing finger.”

“Stretch out your hand!” cried the shadows to the little
girl, and she stretched out her poor little hand from under the
bench.

“T wonder if it is pointing at saetenE the lady went on,
musingly.

“You are full of fancies to-night,” said the man she had
called Philip. “Are you moonstruck by these bright moons on
the end of a pole? Come, dear, it is New Year’s morning: the
clocks are striking twelve. ‘You will get cold, mild as a is,
standing here.”

“Tt is pointing at something,” cried the lady, caved.
“See that Boor little hand; that is not a shadow, though it is
thin enough.

The man stooped down and spied the little girl curled up
under the bench. “What are you doing there, child?” he
asked. “Come out and give an account of yourself.”

“Go! go!” cried the shadow people.

She crept out, and stood up in all the TY of rags and

hunger.
2