“Eight, sir.”

“And have you come from far like this?”

“From the spring in the forest.”

“Are you going far?”

“A good quarter of an hour’s walk from here.”

The man said nothing for a moment; then he remarked abruptly:⁠—

“So you have no mother.”

“I don’t know,” answered the child.

Before the man had time to speak again, she added:⁠—

“I don’t think so. Other people have mothers. I have none.”

And after a silence she went on:⁠—