"I don't know about that, child. I wasn't going to have any words with him, so I just said, 'No, I thank you, sir,' and looked out of the window. Why, Margaret, there is the very man. Depend upon it, he is following us. What shall I do?"
"Why, Cousin Sarah, that is Mr. Walden, a most respectable merchant, and a neighbour of ours," said Margaret, laughing, as she returned the gentleman's bow.
"Dear me! Well, I am sure! But, Margaret, does this man know the way to your house? It seems to me this is not the way I have come before."
"No. Percy and I want to stop down town a moment to do an errand. You will not mind waiting five minutes, will you?"
When they came to the shop, Cousin Sarah was so long in deciding whether she would sit in the carriage, and risk being run away with, or go into the shop and leave the hackman to run away with the trunks, that there seemed some danger of the errands not being done. However, she finally decided to wait while Margaret and Percy went into the candy-shop and bought some matters with which to finish the decoration of the orphans' Christmas-tree, which was to be lighted up that evening.
"Now, Percy," said Margaret, when they arrived at home, "do you suppose you can run round to The Home with these things, and find your way back again?"
"Oh, yes!" replied Percy, cheerfully.
"You know you turn to your left, when you come out of the Asylum, and go to the next corner, and then straight down the street. If you are puzzled, ask a policeman."
"I think I can find the way," answered Percy; and she actually enjoyed the idea of going out in the street alone, and on her own feet. She did her errand at the Asylum and came home quite safely, to report that the tree was going to be beautiful; and that the two dolls she had dressed hung right at the top. When evening came, there arose a new difficulty. Mrs. and Miss Ackerman, being managers of The Home and knowing every child in it, naturally wished to be present at the Christmas festival. But Cousin Sarah would not go, because she was afraid to be out in the evening; and she could not stay at home alone, because she should never dare to be left with only the servants.
"But our coachman and horses are perfectly safe, Sarah," said Mrs. Ackerman.