A chaffinch clung to the bough, and swung to and fro singing.

The door stood open, with the broad, bright day beaming through; and Bebee's little world came streaming in with it,--the world which dwelt in the half-dozen cottages that fringed this green lane of hers like beavers' nests pushed out under the leaves on to the water's edge.
They came in, six or eight of them, all women; trim, clean, plain Brabant peasants, hard-working, kindly of nature, and shrewd in their own simple matters; people who labored in the fields all the day long, or worked themselves blind over the lace pillows in the city.
"You are too young to live alone, Bebee," said the first of them.

"My old mother shall come and keep house for you." "Nay, better come and live with me, Bebee," said the second.

"I will give you bit and drop, and clothing, too, for the right to your plot of ground." "That is to cheat her," said the third.

"Hark, here, Bebee: my sister, who is a lone woman, as you know well, shall come and bide with you, and ask you nothing--nothing at all--only you shall just give her a crust, perhaps, and a few flowers to sell sometimes." "No, no," said the fourth; "that will not do.