Yes; she certainly did hear a little
cry off toward the west. Calling from time to time, she went as nearly
as she could in that direction. The pitiful answering cry grew louder
and nearer; finally Ann could distinguish Hannah's voice.
Wild with joy, she came, at last, upon her sitting on a fallen
hemlock-tree, her pretty face pale, and her sweet blue eyes strained
with terror.
"O, Hannah!" "O, Ann!"
"How did you ever get here, Hannah?"
"I--started for aunt Sarah's--that morning," explained Hannah, between
sobs. "And--I got frightened in the woods, about a mile from father's.
I saw something ahead I thought was a bear. A great black thing! Then
I ran--and, somehow, the first thing I knew, I was lost. I walked and
walked, and it seems to me I kept coming right back to the same place.
Finally I sat down here, and staid; I thought it was all the way for
me to be found."
"O, Hannah! what did you do last night?"
"I staid somewhere, under some pine-trees," replied Hannah, with a
shudder; "and I kept hearing things--O, Ann!"
Ann hugged her sympathizingly. "I guess I wouldn't have slept much if
I had known," said she. "O, Hannah, you haven't had anything to eat!
ain't you starved?"
Hannah laughed faintly. "I ate up two whole pumpkin pies I was
carrying to aunt Sarah," said she. "Oh! how lucky it was you had
them.
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