CHAPTER V.
THE BLUE PLATTER.
"Merry it is in the green forest, Among the leaves green!" Thus sang Hildegarde as she sat in the west window, busily stringing her currants.

She had been thinking a great deal about Bubble Chirk, making plans for his education, and wondering what his sister Pink was like.

He reminded her, she could not tell why, of the "lytel boy" who kept fair Alyce's swine, in her favorite ballad of "Adam Bell, Clym o' the Clough, and William of Cloudeslee;" and the words of the ballad rose half unconsciously to her lips as she bent over the great yellow bowl, heaped with scarlet and pale-gold clusters.
"Merry it is in the green forest, Among the leaves green, Whenas men hunt east and west With bows and arrowes keen, "For to raise the deer out of their denne,-- Such sights have oft been seen; As by three yemen of the north countree: By them it is, I mean.
"The one of them hight Adam Bell, The other Clym o' the Clough; The third was Willyam of Cloudeslee,-- An archer good enough.
"They were outlawed for venison, These yemen every one.
They swore them brethren on a day To English wood for to gone.
"Now lythe and listen, gentylmen, That of myrthes loveth to hear!" At this moment the door opened, and Farmer Hartley entered, taking off his battered straw hat as he did so, and wiping his forehead with a red bandanna handkerchief.

Hilda looked up with a pleasant smile, meaning to thank him for the raspberries which he had gathered for her breakfast; but to her utter astonishment the moment his eyes fell upon her he gave a violent start and turned very pale; then, muttering something under his breath, he turned hastily and left the room.
"Oh! what is the matter ?" cried Hilda, jumping up from her chair.

"What have I done, Nurse Lucy?
I have made the farmer angry, somehow.