Surprises, like misfortunes, rarely come alone. The astonished Susan Nipper and her two young charges were rescued by the bystanders from under the very wheels of a passing carriage before they knew what had happened; and at that moment (it was market day) a thundering alarm of `Mad Bull' was raised.

With a wild confusion before her, of people running up and down, and shouting, and wheels running over them, and boys fighting, and mad bulls coming up, and the nurse in the midst of all these dangers being torn to pieces, Florence screamed and ran. She ran till she was exhausted, urging Susan to do the same; and then, stopping and wringing her hands as she remembered they had left the other nurse behind, found, with a sensation of terror not to be described, that she was quite alone.

`Susan! Susan!' cried Florence, clapping her hands in the very ecstasy of her alarm. `Oh, where are they? where are they?'

`Where are they?' said an old woman, coming hobbling across as fast as she could from the opposite side of the way.

`Why did you run away from 'em?'

`I was frightened,' answered Florence. `I didn't know what I did. I thought they were with me. Where are they?'

The old woman took her by the wrist, and said, `I'll show you.'

She was a very ugly old woman, with red rims round her eyes, and a mouth that mumbled and chattered of itself when she was not speaking. She was miserably dressed, and carried some skins over her arm. She seemed to have followed Florence some little way at all events, for she had lost her breath; and this made her uglier still, as she stood trying to regain it: working her shrivelled yellow face and throat into all sorts of contortions.

Florence was afraid of her, and looked, hesitating, up the street, of which she had almost reached the bottom. It was a solitary place--more a back road than a street--and there was no one in it but herself and the old woman.

`You needn't be frightened now,' said the old woman, still holding her tight. `Come along with me.'

`I--I don't know you. What's your name?' asked Florence.

`Mrs. Brown,' said the old woman. `Good Mrs. Brown.'

`Are they near here?' asked Florence, beginning to be led away.

`Susan an't far off,' said Good Mrs. Brown; `and the others are close to her.'

`Is anybody hurt?' cried Florence.

`Not a bit of it,' said Good Mrs. Brown.

The child shed tears of delight on hearing this, and accompanied the old woman willingly; though she could not help glancing at her face as they went along--particularly at that industrious mouth--and wondering whether Bad Mrs. Brown, if there were such a person, was at all like her.

They had not gone far, but had gone by some very uncomfortable places, such as brick-fields and tile- yards, when the old woman turned down a dirty lane, where the mud lay in deep black ruts in the middle of the road. She stopped before a shabby little house, as closely shut up as a house that was full of cracks and crevices could be. Opening the door with a key she took out of her bonnet, she pushed the child before her into a back room, where there was a great heap of rags of different colours lying on