"This is the kind of day you get robbed," announced Dawn. "Burglars and pickpockets always come along in a fog. Mind if any one takes hold of you, you hit him straight in the face with your fist. Do you hear, Christina? You aren't afraid any more, are you?"
"Oh," cried Christina clutching hold of his arm, "I'm very, very much afraid just now!"
Everything seemed far away. The lights in the shops, the lamps on the carriages, seemed literally vanishing; and at last she gasped out: "Do you think it's the Judgment Day? Perhaps God has taken the sun right away?"
Both boys laughed; and then suddenly—Christina never knew how it was—there was a crowd of people, she became detached from the boys; and before she had time to call after them, she was alone by herself in the foggy London street.
[CHAPTER XII]
LOST IN A FOG
FOR a few minutes she did not realize it, but she pressed after the boys in the direction in which she thought they had gone. She was too shy to call after them; too frightened and bewildered to speak to any passer-by. Stories of children being kidnapped came into her mind. Dawn had said burglars and pickpockets were about; if she spoke, they might offer to take her home, and then lead her away to rob her or kill her. An overwhelming sense of terror seized her, she fancied some one caught hold of her; and turning round, she ran as if for her life away from the possible pickpocket. The fog seemed to get thicker, she could not see a few feet in front of her, and at last she stood still trying to collect her thoughts.
"I don't know where I am, or what I'm to do," she said to herself. "I couldn't find a cab if I wanted one, and I couldn't drive in a cab alone, I should die of fright. The cabman would be drunk; Puggy said they always were. But I'm sure God will take care of me; I mustn't be frightened. I'll say my text:
"'What time I am afraid I will trust in Thee.'
"I will trust God to take care of me. I wish I was near a shop; they seem to have all gone away. Perhaps if I went up to a house and knocked at the door, they would tell me what to do."