“I’m not giving it to you; you’re stealing it from me!” cried Peggy indignantly. But the woman said that unless she gave her the frock she would not tell her the way home. So Peggy had just to allow herself to be undressed on the road.
The woman packed the dress into the basket. “Now,” she said, “walk right down the road till you come to where two roads cross, then go to the right.” Peggy believed her, and ran away down the road as hard as she could run. In reality the woman knew no more than Peggy about the roads, for she was a vagrant who was only passing through the country. All she wanted was to get Peggy as far away as possible.
On and on Peggy ran, always looking for the cross roads that never came. Her poor little feet were covered with dust, and they began to get very painful, for she was accustomed to wear shoes always. Then it felt exceedingly queer to be running along the road in a petticoat. Peggy didn’t like it at all, but she was getting so tired that she could think of nothing but how to get home, and home was really getting farther and farther away from her at every step she took. At last, at the corner of the road, Peggy saw a trough where horses drink, and she was so tired and thirsty that she sat down on the edge and began to suck up the water in the palm of her hand.
As she sat there, she heard the sound of wheels coming along the road, and a little carriage came in sight, driven by a pretty young lady. Peggy felt ashamed of her own appearance, sitting there in her petticoat all covered with dust; but she decided that she must ask the lady to help her, however queer she was looking. So she ran forward into the road, and called out as the carriage came up.
The lady stopped her pony, and the groom jumped down and held its head.
“Is anything wrong with you, my dear?” the lady asked. “And how did you get here without your frock?”
“Oh, I’ve lost my way; I can’t get home,” cried Peggy. And indeed her tear-stained face and her strange garments told their own story.
The lady told Peggy to jump into the carriage, and then she wrapped her round in a linen dust-rug to keep her warm.
“If you tell me where you come from I will drive you home, dear,” she said; and Peggy felt her troubles were ended at last.