It was the first time anyone had kissed her since her mother died,
and the first time that she had kissed anyone but Dick and Charlie.
CHAPTER VII.
A MEETING AND AN ALARM.
Autumn had come now; late autumn with winter not so very far off,
and the days were growing very short and dark; so short and dark
that there was no chance of working early in the morning before
she went downstairs, nor after she went to bed at night, except
by candlelight, and she could not, of course, burn candles.
So Mrs. Perry had to be taken into the secret, and Huldah worked in
comfort by the fire in the afternoons, after she had done her
housework.
And how she did love those cosy afternoons, and how the memory of
them lived with her all her life after! The wind and rain storming
outside, the snug little kitchen, where they sat so cosy and warm,
Dick lying contentedly on his rug, Mrs. Perry sitting in her armchair
by the fire, reading aloud from one of her few but precious books.
They were old, those stories, but to Huldah they were more beautiful
than any she ever came across later on.
Then came the glad day when the basket was completed. Huldah had
taken more pains with it than with any she had ever made, and her
care was rewarded, for a prettier, daintier basket no one could wish
to possess.
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