"Oh, please, do stop a minute!"
They paused, and there was a moment's silence; then the little stranger asked:
"Are you going to school?"
"Yes," Nellie answered.
"I thought so. I don't go to school, because father teaches me. You pass here every day, don't you? Have you far to go?"
"About a mile—that is not far when the weather is fine, but it seems a long way in the winter if it is rainy or snowy. We live at Lowercoombe Farm."
"That is the house down in the valley, isn't it? Is your father a farmer?"
"Yes."
"How nice! I should like to be a farmer if I were a man, and keep lots of horses, and dogs, and cows!"
"And sheep, and pigs, and poultry," added Nellie, laughing, "but it's hard work looking after them all!"