But that did not trouble her, for she had a plan in her head for Pink and Bubble,--a great plan, which was to be whispered to Papa _almost_ the very moment she saw him,--not quite _the_ very moment, but the next thing to it.

The plan would please Nurse Lucy and the farmer too,--would please them almost as much as it delighted her to think about it.
Happy thought! She would go down now and tell the farmer about it.

Nurse Lucy was lying down with a bad headache, she knew; but the farmer was still in the kitchen.

She heard him moving about now, though he had said he was going off to the orchard.

She would steal in softly and startle him, and then-- Full of happy and loving thoughts, Hildegarde slipped quietly down the stairs and across the hall, and peeped in at the kitchen-door to see what the farmer was doing.