Huldah collected her work and rolled it all up in her
work-apron,--one with big pockets, which Miss Rose had made for
her,--but before she was ready a sharp bark from Dick made her wheel
round quickly. A strange, shabbily dressed woman was standing
talking to Mrs. Perry. She had come so silently, so unexpectedly
that Huldah had quite a shock, it seemed almost as though she had
sprung up out of the ground.
"Only someone begging, I suppose," she said to herself, but there was
a vague feeling of trouble at her heart that she could not account
for. The new-comer looked harmless enough, a poor, shabbily dressed
beggar-woman, thin, stooping, feeble-looking.
When Mrs. Perry raised her head and looked up over the field again,
Huldah saw that her face was white and frightened, and in sudden
alarm she took to her heels, and ran as fast as she could to the
gate.
At the click of the latch the new-comer turned and looked across the
road, and as she looked Huldah felt her head reel, and her heart
almost stop beating, for the tramp was Aunt Emma! Aunt Emma, come to
cross her path once more. Aunt Emma, shabbier and dirtier than ever,
and with a pinched, starved look, which showed that things had not
been going well with her.
When she caught sight of Huldah, her face lightened a little, and she
hurried across the road to meet her.
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