I was just going to have a cup myself, before I went to bed." "Oh, thank you, ma'am!" gasped Huldah, feebly, but again with a world of gratitude in her tone.
"Put down your load for a time, then, and rest your arms." Then, as her eyes fell on the baskets the child had been carrying, "Was it one of those you offered me for a bit of bread ?" "Yes, ma'am," answered Huldah, shyly.
"Well, you meant well, I don't doubt, but those baskets are worth more than a bit of bread.

They ought to sell for eighteenpence or two shillings each, I should say." "Yes, ma'am, Aunt Emma always asks half-a-crown, and then comes down to two shillings or eighteenpence," said Huldah, innocently.
"Who's Aunt Emma ?" Huldah hesitated a moment, somewhat at a loss how to explain.
"She isn't my real aunt, though I calls her so.

She and Uncle Tom ain't any relation to me really.

They're called Smith, and my name is Huldah Bate; but when mother died--" "Haven't you got any mother ?" "No, ma'am, and father is dead too.

He died when I was too little to remember, and mother earned her living by making baskets, and when I was big enough she taught me." "How long ago did your mother die ?" asked Mrs.Perry, more gently.
"Two years, ma'am, and when she died Aunt Emma and Uncle Tom said I was to go and live with them.