What crying and kisses and prayers and blessings were poured forth, in a confusion of which her bodily costume was a fitting type, those who know the vocabulary and the enthusiasm of her eloquent race may imagine better than we could describe it.
The welcome of the two other women was far less demonstrative.

There were awful questions to be answered before the kind of reception she was to have could be settled.

What they were, it is needless to suggest; but while Miss Silence was weeping, first with joy that her "responsibility" was removed, then with a fair share of pity and kindness, and other lukewarm emotions,--while Miss Badlam waited for an explanation before giving way to her feelings,--Mr.Gridley put the essential facts before them in a few words.

She had gone down the river some miles in her boat, which was upset by a rush of the current, and she had come very near being drowned.

She was got out, however, by a person living near by, and cared for by some kind women in a house near the river, where he had been fortunate enough to discover her .-- Who cut her hair off?
Perhaps those good people,--she had been out of her head.