"Not a bark out of one of you," she said, sternly, "lie down--go to sleep. If you even give a yelp I'll come out by and by and beat you. Oh, Alice, what is it? What's the matter?"
A maid servant was standing in the wide, square hall.
"What is it, Alice? What is wrong? There's a new baby--I'm delighted at that. But why is Helen crying, and--oh!--oh!--what does it mean--you are crying, too, Alice."
"It's--Miss Polly, I can't tell you," began the girl. She threw her apron over her head, and sobbed loudly. "We didn't know where you was, miss--it's, it's--We have been looking for you everywhere, miss. Why, Miss Polly, you're as white, as white--Don't take on now, miss, dear."
"You needn't say any more," gasped Polly, sinking down into a garden chair. "I'm not going to faint, or do anything silly. And I'm not going to cry either. Where's Helen? If there's anything bad she'll tell me. Oh, do stop making that horrid noise, Alice, you irritate me so dreadfully!"
Alice dashed out of the open door, and Polly heard her sobbing again, and talking frantically to the dogs. There was no other sound of any sort. The intense stillness of the house had a half-stunning, half-calming effect on the startled child. She rose, and walked slowly upstairs to the first landing.
"Polly," said her sister Helen, "you've come at last. Where were you hiding?--oh, poor Polly!"
"Where's mother?" said Polly. "I want her--let me go to her--_let_ me go to her at once, Nell."
Helen's sobs came now, loud, deep, and distressful. There was a new baby--but no mother for Polly any more.
Dr. Maybright had eight children, and the sweetest and most attractive wife of any man in the neighborhood. He had a considerable country practice, was popular among his patients, and he and his were adored by the villagers, for the Maybrights had lived in the neighborhood of the little village of Tyrsley Dale for many generations. Dr. Maybright's father had ministered to the temporal wants of the fathers and mothers of these very same villagers; and his father before him had also been in the profession, and had done his best for the inhabitants of Tyrsley Dale. It was little wonder, therefore, that the simple folks who lived in the little antiquated village on the borders of one of our great southern moors should have thought that to the Maybrights alone of the whole race of mankind had been given the art of healing.