Yes; she certainly did hear a little
cry off toward the west. Calling from time to time, she went as
nearly as she could in that direction. The pitiful answering cry grew
louder and nearer; finally Ann could distinguish Hannah's voice.
Wild with joy, she came, at last, upon her sitting on a fallen
hemlock-tree, her pretty face pale, and her sweet blue eyes strained
with terror.
"O, Hannah!" "O, Ann!"
"How did you ever get here, Hannah?"
"I--started for aunt Sarah's--that morning," explained Hannah,
between sobs. "And--I got frightened, in the woods, about a mile from
father's. I saw something ahead, I thought was a bear. A great black
thing! Then I ran--and, somehow, the first thing I knew, I was lost.
I walked and walked, and it seems to me I kept coming right back to
the same place. Finally I sat down here, and staid; I thought it was
all the way for me to be found."
"O, Hannah, what did you do last night?"
"I staid somewhere, under some pine trees," replied Hannah, with a
shudder, "and I kept hearing things--O Ann!"
Ann hugged her sympathizingly.
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