Poor Peggy was going through worse horrors than mud, and when she finally arrived with the milk, her hat was awry, her black dress was covered with dirt, and her eyes nearly starting out of her head with terror.
Joyce snatched the jug out of her hand, and marched off to the kitchen without a word; but Helen took pity on her.
"What is the matter, Peggy? You look frightened."
"Oh, please 'm, I've never bin to a farm, and I did go through the mud, though it was almost a-drownin' of me, and then I come to a gate, and when I got through, please 'm, it was a wild beast show, only worse, for they weren't shut up in cages! There was great brown bulls with 'orns 'm, a-tryin' to run at me, and there was pigs as big as sheep, and great white geese, and a dog barkin' like mad and tryin' to break his chain to get at me, and awful-lookin' turkeys which I've never seen alive 'm before, only hung up in shops at Christmas-time, but I knewed 'em by their red beards, but the scandalous noise 'm they made at me, would frighten the king hisself!
"They all made for me 'm, they did indeed, and there was ducks and fowls by the hundreds all runnin' under everybody's feet. Please 'm, I knewed I were in dreadful danger, but I did my dooty faithful, and thought of your milk. Only what with the sticky mud, and the cocks and hens, and tryin' to dodge the bulls, and turkeys, and all the rest o' the wild animals, I fell slap down 'm, and then I give myself up for lost. I 'ollered, and 'ollered, and then a man run out, and he took the jug, and was so kind as to tell me I might wait outside the gate, and he fetched the milk to me hisself.
"And, please 'm, is there no p'lice in the country, for they wouldn't allow no such goin's-on in London; they be all on the loose and no one to keep 'em from attacking yer! And, please, 'm, must I go every day to fetch the milk?"
Peggy's breath gave out. She truly had been nearly frightened out of her wits.
Helen concealed her amusement, and spoke very kindly.
"We forgot you were a little town girl, Peggy. We will not send you till you are accustomed to country ways. I don't think the animals would have hurt you, but I'm sure it must have been very alarming. Now go upstairs and change your boots, and brush your dress, and then come down to tea."
Poor Peggy went upstairs a sadder and a wiser girl. She shook her head at herself in the glass.