They made such frantic
efforts to get away then, that they looked like jumping-jacks; but it
was of no use.
[Illustration: NAN RETURNS WITH THE UMBRELLAS.]
Poor Dame Clementina and Nan after they had given the milk porridge to
the people, and done all they could for their comfort, stood staring
disconsolately out of the window at them under their dripping
umbrellas. The yard was fairly green and black and blue and yellow
with umbrellas. They wept at the sight, but they could not think
of any way out of the difficulty. The people themselves might have
suggested one, had they known the real cause; but they did not dare to
tell them how they were responsible for all the trouble; they seemed
so angry.
About noon Nan spied their most particular friend, Dame Elizabeth,
coming. She lived a little way out of the village. Nan saw her
approaching the gate through the rain and mist, with her great blue
umbrella and her long blue double cape and her poke bonnet; and she
cried out in the greatest dismay: "O, mother, mother! there is our
dear Dame Elizabeth coming; she will have to stop too!"
Then they watched her with beating hearts. Dame Elizabeth stared with
astonishment at the people, and stopped to ask them questions. But she
passed quite through their midst, and entered the cottage under the
sprig of dill, and the verse.
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