Her heart sank.

She loved Richard dearly; if he had asked her, she would have gone to the ends of the earth with him; but at this moment she felt both small and lonely, and she would have liked nothing better than Mrs.Beamish's big motherly bosom, on which to lay her head.

And when, in passing a swamp, a well-known noise broke on her ear--that of hundreds of bell-frogs, which were like hundreds of hissing tea-kettles just about to boil--then such a rush of homesickness took her that she would have given all she had, to know she was going back, once more, to the familiar little whitewashed room she had shared with Tilly and Jinny.
The seat of the cart was slanting and slippery.

Polly was continually sliding forward, now by inches, now with a great jerk.

At last Mahony noticed it.