Miss Joe and Nettie were handed in by Hugh, and then the boy put in his hand to bid them a sorrowful good-by.
Miss Joe burst into tears, sobbed aloud, told Hugh if he should not find his place as shop-boy at Mr. Fig’s grocery pleasant to let her know and she would go right back to Hutton’s Isle, and they two would work together and see better times when the warm weather should come.
Nettie, for her part, much as she loved Hugh, could not cry. She had read too many fairy tales not to know how her own ought to end; and so Nettie felt perfectly assured that by some dénouement at Mount Calm every wish of her heart must be accomplished, most especially the dearest wish of all, that of having her playmate always with her. So they took leave. Hugh struck into a by-path, and walked off briskly toward the store of Mr. Fig. And the carriage rolled on up through the main street of the village and out over the country road that led over the snow-covered hills and through the hollow to Mount Calm.
Arrived at Mount Calm they were met by General Garnet, who, receiving little Nettie in his arms, pressed her fondly and carried her into the house, followed by Miss Joe. Here, in the hall, he delivered the little girl to the charge of a neatly-dressed “ladylike” mulatto girl with a gray Madras turban on her head and a pair of heavy gold hoops in her ears, telling her to take Miss Seabright to the chamber lately occupied by Miss Garnet, and to prepare her for the breakfast table.
“And what’s your name?” asked Nettie, looking up with curiosity at the gay mulatto.
“Nettie, my darling, she is Hero, your maid,” said General Garnet.
Hero took the hand of the child and was about to lead her up the great staircase, when Nettie suddenly broke from her, and, exclaiming, interrogatively: “This way?” sprang up the stairs like a squirrel.
Hero tripped after her, overtook her on the landing, and gently took her hand, saying:
“Miss Seabright, young ladies oughtn’t to romp through a quiet house, and race upstairs in that manner.”
“I know young ladies oughtn’t to, but I am a little gal.”