“Certainly! unless you catch a whale! Oh! I have dropped my pocket handkerchief,—pray pick it up!”

Captain Digby did so; but without waiting to examine the pattern, he instantly ran forward, and to his own very great astonishment, saw Laura up to her knees in the river, trying to scramble out, while her face was white with terror, and her limbs trembled with cold, like a poodle dog newly washed.

“Why, here you are again!—the very same little girl that I caught in the morning,” cried he, laughing heartily, while he carefully pulled Laura towards the bank, though, by doing so, he splashed his beautiful uniform most distressingly. “We have had a complete game at bo-peep to-day, my friend! but here comes a lady who has promised to eat you up, therefore I shall have no more trouble.”

Laura would have consented to be eaten up with pleasure, rather than encounter Lady Harriet’s eye, who really did not recognize her for the first minute, as no one can suppose what a figure she appeared. The last clean frock had been covered entirely over with mud—her hair was dripping with water—and her new yellow sash might be any colour in the world. Laura felt so completely ashamed she could not look up from the ground, and so sorry she could not speak, while hot tears mingled themselves with the cold water which trickled down her face.

“What is the matter! Who is this?” cried Lady Harriet, hurrying up to the place where they stood. “Laura!! Impossible!!!”

“Let me put on a pair of spectacles, for I cannot believe my eyes without them!” said Major Graham. “Ah! sure [88] ]enough it is Laura, and such a looking Laura as I never saw before. You must have had a nice cold bath!”

“I have heard,” continued Lady Harriet, “that naughty people are often ducked in the water as a punishment, and in that respect I am sure Laura deserves what she has got, and a great deal more.”

“She reminds me,” observed Captain Digby, “of the Chinese bird which has no legs, so it constantly flies about from place to place, never a moment at rest.”

“Follow me, Laura,” said Lady Harriet, “that I may hear whether you have anything to say for yourself on this occasion. It is scarcely possible that there can be any excuse, but nobody should be condemned unheard.”

When Laura had been put into dry clothes, she told her whole history, and entreated Lady Harriet to hear how very perfectly she had first learned her task, before venturing to stir out of the room; upon which her grandmama consented, and amidst tears and sobs, the monody on Sir John Moore was repeated without a single mistake. Lady Rockville then came in, to entreat that, as this was the last day of the visit to Holiday House, Laura might be forgiven and permitted to appear at dessert, as all the company were anxious to see her, and particularly Captain Digby, who regretted that he had been the means at first of getting her into a scrape.