After the French lesson was over, Sally lingered in the parson's library.
"I gave thee the next reading, did I not?" asked Parson Kendall.
"Yes, I know about the lesson, sir," replied Sally, "but I know not where I had better go. I have no home."
"No home?" repeated the parson, "how is that? Hath the woman Mistress Brace cast thee out?"
Sally turned pale, so great was her fright and her desire to cry. But a single word from her Fairy helped her:
"Courage!"
"I refused to buy tea at the apothecary man's," she said, "and Mistress Brace called me a beggar, and bade me go and not return. I cannot be called a beggar, nor can I go back, when I have been told to stay away."
Parson Kendall toyed with his watch-fob, looked at the braided mat on which he stood, and seemed studying the pattern of the border. After what seemed a long time to Sally, he said:
"Sit thee down for a moment, poor maid. I would speak with Goodwife Kendall for a space. Be not timorous, all may yet be well with thee."
Sally sank into a chair as the parson disappeared.