So the children jumped down from the fence, and, running for a little distance, they came to the field where the child was standing.
As soon as she saw our little friends she began to run towards them as fast as she could go, crying:
“Oh, please, please, show me the way home. I want my mamma.”
Alice went up to the child, and, putting her arms around her, she kissed the child gently, saying:
“Do not cry, dear. We will take you home, only tell us where you live. How did you get here? Have you lost your way?”
“Oh,” said the little girl, “I lost my lamb—he wandered away—so I thought I would go and find him. I hunted and hunted for him, and at last I found him in a big, big field. I was so glad to see him that I sat down and played with him. See! I made this chain of daisies; isn’t it pretty?
“Well, after we had played for a while we started to go home, but we didn’t find the place. Somehow, we kept getting into more fields and more fields, and then I got oh, so tired, and I called mamma but she didn’t hear me.”
“Well, never mind now,” said Alice; “we will take you home in our carriage, and you shall soon see your mamma. What is your name?”
“My name is Linda Forest,” said the little girl, “but I can’t tell you where I live, for I don’t know the way. It is a big, big house with big, big trees all around it. It isn’t our city house, but our new house in the country.”
“Well,” said Alice, “we will find out where it is when mamma comes out. There she is now,” she added. “Come take my hand and we will go and tell mamma.”