"Oh, you heard him say that he had pains in all his bones. Now be a
good child, Nelly, and get quick into bed. I shall soon be back."
11. With these words Mercy tied on a great scarf which was once her
father's round her neck, crept down stairs without making the least
noise, and out at the back door.
12. Once out of shelter of the house, it was, as she thought with a
shiver, "a bitter night." The snow was no longer falling, but a keen
wind swept over the white face of the earth and stirred up the snow.
13. It piled heaps of it up into strange shapes. The frost was so hard
that the feet of the child did not sink into it as she ran along.
14. Very soon she reached the shed, outside of which the donkey stood,
a picture of patient despair. She plunged through a great heap of
drifted snow and reached its side. She patted his rough coat.
15. "Oh, Brownie," she cried, "how cold you are! I must get this door
open for you somehow." She pulled it, she jerked it, she kicked it, she
shook down showers of snow on herself, and that was all.
16. It was in vain to try. It was frozen hard, and do what she would,
she could not stir it an inch. It was hopeless. "Oh, what can I do for
you, Brownie?" she thought, ready to cry with grief.
17. "I do so wish you were not so big, and I could take you up the
stairs into our bed-room!" And Mercy half laughed at the idea of taking
the donkey to bed with her.
18. She gave one last, hard hit and a rattle at the unkind door. "I
cannot get it open, Brownie, and I must go home again. It will not do
you any good if I stay out here with you."
19. Slowly the child moved away. If it had seemed cold when she first
came out, it seemed ten times colder now. And she saw the sad look
which the poor beast cast after her when she left him. Mercy could not
forget it.
* * * * *
_Write:_ Mercy went out into the cold that she might open the shed
door. She wished to let the donkey in. But she could not open it.
Questions: 1. What did Mercy remember about the shed? 2.
What did she put on? 3. Where did she go? 4. What was the
weather like outside the house? 5. What did she find on
trying to open the shed door? 6. What was it that Mercy
could not forget?