The same evening it was that Maggie came along with Andrew, and found the
baby as I have already told. All that night, and a great part of the next
day, Isy went searching about in vain, doubtless with intervals of repose
compelled by utter exhaustion. Imagining at length that she had discovered
the very spot where she left him, and not finding him, she came to the
conclusion that some wild beast had come upon the helpless thing and
carried him off. Then a gleam of water coming to her eye, she rushed to the
peat-hag whence it was reflected, and would there have drowned herself.
But she was intercepted and turned aside by a man who threw down his
flauchter-spade, and ran between her and the frightful hole. He thought
she was out of her mind, and tried to console her with the assurance that
no child left on that moor could be in other than luck's way. He gave her a
few half-pence, and directed her to the next town, with a threat of
hanging if she made a second attempt of the sort.
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