PICCOLETTA'S ADVENTURE. 225 



nified at first, by their ruling fear, into one of the dreaded 

 trap-makers, they soon joyfully recognised as the missing 

 Piccoletta. Nothing could exceed the delight of her neigh- 

 bours at seeing her again, except, perhaps, their desire to 

 know what had befallen her ; and when a little recovered from 

 fatigue, and the injuries she had received in her expedition, 

 she gratified their curiosity by the following relation : 



" You may remember, my dear friends," said she, " how I 

 got up by sunrise the day before yesterday, and went out by 

 myself into the country. You know, too, that I never, on my 

 own account, had any more fears about those terrible pitfalls, 

 than if such things were still, as they used to be, quite un- 

 known; but, somehow, on that morning, as soon as I got 

 beyond the shadow of our city walls, my heart seemed to sink 

 within me, and I should have returned directly only I was 

 ashamed. Instead, however, of going on steadily as usual, I 

 every now and then climbed to the top of some rock or emi- 

 nence, to obtain an extensive view, and wherever I saw before 

 me a dark roundish shadow, there I fancied a pitfall opened, 

 and took a round-about way to avoid it. This tired me not 

 a little, but I was determined to proceed as far as I had in- 

 tended ; that was, to the clump of elder-trees where some of 

 our black cattle have been lately at pasture, and from whence 

 I have often brought fresh supplies of honeyed milk. 



"Judge, however, of my disappointment, when, after so 

 much toil to reach them, I found the elders all cut down (by the 



