"The gentleman says you're to take nothing with you except just what will go in a little bag," said Mrs. Browne; "and I've brought you my best hand-bag."
"I'll not go away without these things," said Meg ardently. "I'll not go to school or nowhere without them."
Mrs. Browne shook her head; but Meg was not to be moved.
A few minutes' later, attired in her Sunday garments, her feet shod in worn boots, Meg, carrying her parcel, went downstairs, followed by Mrs. Browne. In the best parlor stood the gentleman she had once seen in Mr. Standish's room, and to whom she had been introduced as the "little girl I spoke to you of."
He still wore a frilled shirt and tapped a silver snuffbox, and he looked at Meg with his head very much on one side.
"Ready to go—ready to go!" he said in a quick chirping voice. "Not crying, eh? not crying?"
Meg disengaged her hand to take the one proffered to her.
"Can't take that parcel," said Mr. Fullbloom, shaking his head. "Can't take it."
"Then I won't go away—I won't go to the school without it," said Meg with fierce decision.