Miss Fortune's thoughts seemed too much for speech, from the way in which she jumped up and went off without saying anything more. She presently came back with an old pair of gray socks, which she bade Ellen put on as soon as her feet were dry.
"How many of those white stockings have you?" she said.
"Mamma bought me half a dozen pair of new ones just before I came away, and I had as many as that of old ones besides."
"Well, now go up to your trunk and bring 'em all down to me every pair of white stockings you have got. There's a pair of old slippers you can put on till your shoes are dry," she said, flinging them to her "They aren't much too big for you."
"They're not much too big for the socks they're a great deal too big for me," thought Ellen. But she said nothing. She gathered all her stockings together and brought them down stairs, as her aunt had bidden her.
"Now you may run out to the barn, to Mr. Van Brunt you'll find him there and tell him I want him to bring me some white maple bark when he comes home to dinner white maple bark, do you hear?"
Away went Ellen, but in a few minutes came back.
"I can't get in," she said.
"What's the matter?"
"Those great doors are shut, and I can't open them. I knocked, but nobody came."