"Tell me, my child," said the judge, quite gently, "were you long on the high roads?"
Willi answered firmly—
"I no longer know."
"Were you out at night?"
"Yes; I was out at night—two nights, I think, in a snowstorm."
"Did you ask none for alms?"
Willi gnashed her teeth.
"I went from house to house, and begged for milk for the—for the—fainting child; but none, none gave me aught. They scolded me, and called me bad names, but gave me not one drop."
A murmur ran through the assemblage. People from the village were called in who stated that a person had begged from them for two days, and had then disappeared.