CHAPTER XXI.
HOW AGNES LIKED BEING A BIRD.
But Willie began to think whether he might not give Agnes two surprises out of it, with a dream into the bargain, and thought over it until he saw how he could manage it.
She always went to bed at seven o'clock, so that by the time the other people in the house began to think of retiring, she was generally fast asleep.

About ten o'clock, therefore, the next night, just as a great round moon was peering above the horizon, with a quantity of mackerel clouds ready to receive her when she rose a yard or two higher, Willie, taking a soft shawl of his mother's, went into Agnes's room, and having wrapped her in the shawl, with a corner of it over her head and face, carried her out into the garden, down to the trees, and up the stair into the midst of the great boughs and branches of the elm tree.

It was a very warm night, with a soft breath of south wind blowing, and there was no risk of her taking cold.

He uncovered her face, but did not wake her, leaving that to the change of her position and the freshness of the air.
Nor was he disappointed.

In a few moments she began to stir, then half-opened her eyes, then shut them, then opened them again, then rubbed them, then drew a deep breath, and then began to lift her head from Willie's shoulder, and look about her.