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diff --git a/old/64258-0.txt b/old/64258-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index a0381ff..0000000 --- a/old/64258-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5361 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Mean-Wells, by Mabel Quiller-Couch - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Mean-Wells - -Author: Mabel Quiller-Couch - -Illustrator: George Edward Robertson - -Release Date: January 11, 2021 [eBook #64258] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: David E. Brown and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team - at https://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEAN-WELLS *** - - - - -THE MEAN-WELLS - - -[Illustration: “GEOFFREY EXAMINED THE BOX.” - Page 5.] - - - - - THE MEAN-WELLS - - BY - MABEL QUILLER-COUCH - - AUTHOR OF “THE CARROL GIRLS,” “TROUBLESOME URSULA,” - “A PAIR OF REDPOLLS,” “KITTY TRENIRE,” ETC. - - ILLUSTRATED BY - G. E. ROBERTSON - - LONDON - - WELLS GARDNER, DARTON & CO. LTD. - 3 & 4, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, E.C. - AND 44, VICTORIA STREET, S.W. - -[Illustration] - - - - - TO - - _LILY_ - - IN REMEMBRANCE - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAP. PAGE - - I. THE WORTH OF A TOOTH 1 - - II. A DRIVE AND A PINK PARASOL 9 - - III. ON THE ROAD TO LANTIG 19 - - IV. A ROOMFUL OF BABIES, AND A GIANT’S CHAIR 26 - - V. SWEEPING THE DRAWING-ROOM 39 - - VI. MRS. TICKELL, MRS. WALL, AND AN ACCIDENT 48 - - VII. LOVEDAY GOES VISITING 60 - - VIII. PISKIES STILL LIVE AT PORTHCALLIS 70 - - IX. MISS POTTS COMES TO TEA 81 - - X. THE FAIRY RING 92 - - XI. LOVEDAY AND AARON PLAY AT BEING PISKIES 105 - - XII. THE PISKIES CAUGHT 115 - - XIII. PRISCILLA PAYS A CALL AND TAKES A JOURNEY 126 - - XIV. PRISCILLA PAYS ANOTHER CALL 137 - - XV. MR. WINTER 145 - - XVI. IN WHICH A GREAT MANY THINGS HAPPEN 154 - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS - - - “GEOFFREY EXAMINED THE BOX” _Frontispiece_ - - “THE GIANT’S FOOTSTOOL” _To face p._ 34 - - “‘I’LL TAKE THOMAS,’ SHE SAID” ” 64 - - “A BIG CATCH OF CRABS AND LOBSTERS” ” 72 - - “DON’T LET US LOOK ANY MORE” ” 96 - - “THEY SHOOK OUT THEIR PINAFORES OVER THE DIZZY HEIGHTS” ” 114 - - “PRISCILLA SLIPPED OUT EASILY” ” 144 - - “THEY WOULD LIGHT A FIRE AND BOIL THE KETTLE” ” 154 - - - - -THE MEAN-WELLS - - - - -CHAPTER I - -THE WORTH OF A TOOTH - - -It did seem very unjust, and the more they thought of it the more -unjust it seemed, especially to Priscilla. - -“When I had a tooth pulled out no one gave me anything,” she grumbled; -“but Loveday has a shilling given her for hers, and some sweets, and -such a fuss made.” - -“I only had sixpence, and mine was a double tooth,” said Geoffrey -thoughtfully, “and I am a boy.” - -“I don’t see that being a boy ought to make any difference,” retorted -Priscilla; “boys’ teeth don’t hurt more than girls’, and boys ought to -be able to bear it better.” - -“Oh, but boys always have more in--in comparison, just as men do.” - -“Do they?” asked Priscilla thoughtfully. “I wonder why? I think it -ought to be just the other way, ’cause boys and men are stronger.” - -“Oh, you’ll understand some day,” said Geoffrey loftily; “you are too -young now.” - -There had been great excitement in the house that afternoon. Loveday -had been having toothache frequently for some time. Whenever she drank -anything hot or cold, or ate anything sweet, or put a lollipop in her -mouth, her tooth had begun to jump and ache; and as she was generally -doing one or the other, or wanting to, Loveday’s life lately had not -been a bed of roses, any more than had the lives of those who had to -relieve her pain and stop her sobs. So at last her father had decided -that the tooth must go. It was slightly loose already and decayed, and -Loveday was assured that she would know no comfort while it remained in -her mouth; but if it was taken away another would soon grow, they told -her, and she was promised some sweets and a shilling when the operation -was over, if she bore it bravely. - -Loveday had to think the matter over a little before she gave her -consent, for though she hated having pain and not being allowed to eat -sweets, she did like to have a wobbly tooth, one that she could move -with her tongue, and she had hoped that if she waited a little while it -would not hurt her when it wobbled. - -But her father told her that that was very unlikely, and that if she -did not have it taken out now it would fall out some day soon, perhaps -while she was asleep, and then there would be danger of its choking her. - -“If it felled out should I have a shilling and sweets, father?” she -asked. - -But father, without any hesitation, said: - -“Oh dear, no--certainly not.” - -So Loveday consented to the operation. She wanted the shilling to buy a -paint-box with, and she wanted to see the tooth. - -Then began a great bustle. One servant ran for a tumbler of warm -water, and another for a towel and different things, and they looked -at Loveday so pityingly that she began to wonder if it would be very -dreadful after all, and grew quite frightened. Then her father came in, -and perched her on the table, and told her to open her mouth and let -him see which tooth it was; and before she knew he had even seen which -was the right one, she felt a little tweak, and it was out! She did not -cry, for as soon as the pain began it was over, before she could even -make a sound, or screw out a tear; and then, when she realised what had -happened, every one was petting and praising her, and calling her a -brave little heroine, and Nurse gave her a box of chocolates, and her -father gave her a shilling, and her mother an extra penny because she -had not made any noise. Priscilla thought it the easiest and quickest -way of earning pocket-money that she had ever dreamed of--much easier -than catching snails or pulling weeds. - -The extraction itself was far too quickly over to please Geoffrey and -Priscilla, who had been standing by the table, looking on. Priscilla -had covered her ears that she might not hear Loveday’s screams, and, -after all, Loveday had not screamed; and having closed her eyes -too--for when it came to the most exciting moment she felt she could -not look--Priscilla had missed everything, and when she unstopped one -ear a little to hear if the screams had begun, she heard Loveday saying -quite calmly: - -“Thank you. Now I want my paint-box. Geoffrey, go and buy it for me at -once, please.” - -And when Priscilla looked, Loveday was proudly handing to Geoffrey the -new shilling she had just earned. - -It had been arranged beforehand that if she won it, Geoffrey should run -at once and buy her a box of paints with it. - -So, finding that all the excitement was over, Priscilla decided to go -with Geoffrey to buy the paints, and it was while they were on their -way to the shop that the sense of injustice began to grow in her -small breast, and it grew and grew until, as she stood in Miss Potts’ -toy-shop and gazed about her, she felt that at least two of the toys -she saw there were hers by right, for she had had out two teeth, and -one had hurt her very much. Geoffrey had not, of course, such deep -cause of complaint, for he had accepted the sixpence gladly, and if -he did not stick out for more at the time he could not very well say -anything now. - -“And what kind of paints is it you want, Master Geoffrey?” asked Miss -Potts pleasantly when he had told her what he had come for. - -Most of her customers--and they were not numerous--were penny-toy -customers, so she was very anxious to oblige her larger purchasers when -she did get any. Not but what she was polite and kind to every one who -entered her little shop; she did not know how to be anything else. - -“It’s a shilling box I want, please,” said Geoffrey, as though such a -purchase was quite a small matter to him, and jingling in his pocket -all the while the shilling and a French halfpenny of his own. “I want -_Sans Poison_, please,” he added--he pronounced it in the English way, -so that it sounded like “Sands Poison”--“because then Loveday can’t -harm herself if she swallows some. She always will lick her brush, and -it’s no use trying to stop her.” - -Miss Potts, in common with the children, felt the greatest respect and -faith in that mysterious person “Sans,” who, according to their belief, -had discovered how to make paints that any child might swallow and not -die. - -“I’d never buy anybody else’s for Miss Loveday, if I were you, sir,” -said Miss Potts solemnly. “You see, he guarantees them harmless, and we -have proved them to be so, and ’tisn’t likely that now he’s made his -reputation he’d risk it by selling others. But there’s no knowing what -other folks will put in theirs; I wouldn’t trust them.” - -Geoffrey agreed gravely, while he examined the box to see that the -brushes and saucers were in perfect order. He was five years older than -Loveday, and felt at least twenty. - -Priscilla, who had been wandering about the shop, eagerly examining its -treasures, came up to the counter. - -“Miss Potts,” she asked very gravely, “don’t you think that if a double -tooth is worth a shilling, a single one is worth sixpence?” - -“I dare say you’re right, dearie,” said Miss Potts kindly, “but I never -found mine worth anything, not even for chewing.” - -“Did you have some once?” asked Priscilla, in genuine astonishment. The -question was excusable, for she had never seen Miss Potts with even -one. - -Miss Potts, quite unembarrassed, laughed good-temperedly. - -“Why, yes, dearie, of course I had; but I was glad enough to get rid of -them, I can assure you.” - -“So should I be if I could get a shilling for each;” and Priscilla -began to count her teeth, to find out what wealth might be hers. “Do -you think I shall have none some day?” she asked eagerly. - -“Oh dear no, missie; I don’t suppose so. You’ll be looked after too -well for that.” - -Priscilla grew thoughtful. - -“I do think, though, that two teeth ought to be worth a--a----” - -She looked around the shop to see what she could choose out of all -that was there. It was very difficult, and Geoffrey, having finished -examining a top that had caught his fancy, began to grow impatient. - -“Come along, Prissy,” he said impatiently; “you know Loveday will be -waiting for us,” and he strolled to the door. - -“I shall ask father if I may have a hoop,” said Priscilla to Miss -Potts. “I don’t think that’s too much. There were two teeth, and both -hurt a lot, and oh, how they bled! You never saw such a thing! Much -more than Loveday’s! But every one pets Loveday so,” she added, in a -confidential tone, “because she is the youngest. They always say, ‘Ah, -but she is the baby!’ But she isn’t; she is nearly seven years old, and -babies aren’t babies when they are as old as that, are they?” - -“Well, dear, you see folks always think a lot of the youngest,” said -Miss Potts gently. - -Priscilla nodded her head very soberly. - -“They do!” she said gravely, “and of the eldest, too, I think. -Yesterday when granny gave Geoffrey a book and didn’t give me one, she -said it was given to Geoffrey because he was the eldest. I don’t think -it is very nice to be an in-between, do you, Miss Potts?” - -“I don’t know, dear,” said Miss Potts, with a deep sigh. “I’d be glad -to be anything if only I’d got some brothers and sisters.” - -“Miss Potts, didn’t you ever have any?” Priscilla was standing at the -end of the counter, gazing up at the tall, thin woman behind it. Miss -Potts was certainly a very interesting person, she thought--so much -seemed to have happened in her life. Miss Potts shook her head, and -passed her hand across her eyes. - -“I had them, Miss Priscilla,” she said softly, “but I’m the only one -left.” - -“I am very sorry,” said Priscilla, in a tone of sympathy. “It must be -dreadfully sad for you; I hope you didn’t mind my asking.” Then, after -a moment’s pause, “I’ll be your sister, if you would like me to, Miss -Potts. Of course, I couldn’t live with you always, but----” - -“I wonder what your pa and ma would say to that, dear,” said Miss -Potts, half laughing, half crying. “It is very kind of you to think -of it, I’m sure, but I reckon you’ve got brothers and sisters enough -already.” - -“Well, anyhow I can come in very often to see you. That will make it -seem a _little_ less lonely, won’t it? And-- Oh, there’s Geoffrey -running away. I _must_ go, because I want to see Loveday unwrap her -paint-box. I wonder if she will let me use it too. I think she might, -considering. There are two brushes, aren’t there? and she can’t use -both at once. Good-bye, Miss Potts. I will come again soon. O Geoffrey, -you are mean! You might as well wait, when you know I am hurrying as -fast as ever I can.” - - - - -CHAPTER II - -A DRIVE AND A PINK PARASOL - - -When Geoffrey and Priscilla got back, they found Loveday seated at the -dining-room table, with a newspaper spread before her, to protect the -table-cloth, a glass of water and a piece of white rag beside her, and -before her an old bound volume of _Little Folks_, already open at the -picture she had selected to paint. Close at her hand lay a little screw -of white paper containing her tooth. She was all in readiness to begin, -and very impatient at what she considered their long delay. - -“I do think you might have hurried,” she said, in an injured tone, -“when you knew that I was not at all well.” - -“What is the matter? You are all right now the tooth is out,” said -Geoffrey teasingly. - -“No, I am not. Look at the great hole between my teefs; it’s ’normous! -I can put all my tongue in, nearly.” - -“Well, don’t put any paint in, or you might die,” said Priscilla. -“Loveday, dear, don’t you think I had better paint for you, while you -look on?” - -“No, I don’t,” said Loveday, who usually said exactly what she thought. -“Geoffrey has got ‘sans poison’ paints, and I’ve got a piece of rag to -wipe my brushes on, and I am waiting to begin.” - -“Well, I think you are very greedy,” said Priscilla rather unjustly. - -“No, I am not, I’ve been ill,” explained Loveday, looking up with a -grave face and wide blue eyes full of reproach; “and when peoples are -ill they are ’lowed to do what they like.” - -“I don’t think you are ill. I think you are only greedy. I don’t call -having just one tooth out being ill; but you make so much fuss about -everything.” - -“You don’t know how much it hurt me,” said Loveday, returning quite -calmly to the mixing of her paints, her short golden curls falling all -about her little flushed face. “It was--oh, it was somefin’ dreadful!” - -“It couldn’t have been so very bad, or you would have screamed, I -know;” and with this parting shot Priscilla walked away. - -“Aren’t you going to watch me paint?” called Loveday anxiously. - -“No, I am not,” said Priscilla shortly. She was feeling cross and -dissatisfied, and she knew she was behaving unkindly, which did not -help her to feel happier. Geoffrey had disappeared since he brought -back the paint-box, and Priscilla felt dull and miserable; she could -not think of anything she wanted to do. First of all she wandered up to -the nursery, but it looked lonely, so she quickly came out again, and, -strolling downstairs, went out into the yard. - -The afternoon sun was shining hotly, right down into the yard, bringing -out the beautiful scents of the mignonette and lemon-verbena in -the box on the kitchen window-sill, and the aromatic smell of the -scenty-leaved geranium. On the ground underneath the window stood -several very large fuchsias in pots; their branches hung thickly with -pendent graceful blossoms like little dancers, some in pink frocks with -white petticoats, others in white frocks with pink petticoats, while -others, again, had scarlet frocks with purple petticoats. - -All the plants belonged to Ellen, the cook, who had a perfect passion -for flowers and growing plants. One of the greatest offences the -children could commit was to break or injure any of her treasures in -any way. - -Ellen was leaning out of the window now, admiring her beloved plants, -smoothing over the earth with her fingers, and tidying away any dead -leaves, and all the time she was doing it she talked to the plants just -as though they could hear her and understand. She picked a leaf of the -scenty geranium and offered it to Priscilla, who took it gratefully, -for she loved the scent, and Ellen was not often so generous. - -It was too hot in the yard to remain there long, and too dull, so -Priscilla presently wandered away to the orchard beyond. The orchard -was on the slope of the hill at the back of the house, and was full of -very old apple-trees. Each of the children had a favourite tree, and -a favourite seat in it. Priscilla clambered up to hers, and sat there -for a few moments, sniffing at her geranium leaf and looking about her -rather disconsolately; it was so stupid and uninteresting to be there -alone, yet nothing else seemed worth doing by herself, and what had -become of Geoffrey she did not know. - -“I don’t wonder Miss Potts is sorry she has no brothers or sisters; it -must be dreadful to be always without any. I wonder how little ‘only’ -girls and boys play? They can’t ever have such nice games as we have.” - -She sat up amongst the branches, gazing down through the shady trees, -pondering over this matter and sniffing at her leaf; and all her life -after, the scent of those geraniums brought back to her mind the sunny -day, Loveday’s tooth-pulling, Miss Potts, the old orchard, and the -serious mood she was in there. - -Presently the sound of horses’ hoofs on rough cobble-stones reached -her. “That must be Betsy being harnessed,” she murmured, beginning at -once to climb down; “I wonder if father is going out?” - -Priscilla’s love of horses was, then and always, one of the passions of -her life, and of all horses Betsy was the queen. She hurried through -the orchard now to speak to Betsy, and to see what was happening. In -the yard she found Hocking, their man, wheeling the carriage out of the -coach-house, and Betsy standing, partly harnessed, looking on. At the -sound of Priscilla’s step she looked around, and Priscilla, running to -her, embraced one of her legs and kissed her soft warm shoulder. - -“You dear!” she said, laying her cheek against the old horse, patting -her with little loving pats, and Betsy lowered her head and looked at -her little mistress in a motherly way. - -While Priscilla stood there her father came out to place a -medicine-case in the carriage. - -“Hullo, little woman,” he said. “What are you doing? Nothing! That’s a -dull way of passing your time. Would you like to come with me?” - -“Oh!” cried Priscilla, unclasping Betsy and clasping her own small -hands in rapture, “may I?” - -“Yes, if you like. I am going to Lantig, but I shall be back by -tea-time. Hurry in, then, and get ready, and don’t spend an age over -your toilet.” - -Priscilla laughed delightedly, and flew up to her room. As she passed -in and up the stairs, she heard Loveday’s shrill little voice calling -to her: - -“Prissy, Prissy, _do_ come here! Oh, I do want some one to watch me -paint! Just look what I’ve done!” - -“Can’t stay,” shouted back Priscilla. “I am going to Lantig with -father, and he told me to hurry.” - -“Well, somebody _ought_ to stay with me when I’m an--an invalid,” -declared Loveday, in an aggrieved tone. - -“Where is mother?” - -“Out.” - -“Oh, well, she’ll be in soon. Go out to the kitchen and show your -pictures to Ellen;” and on she ran. - -The children had not a real nurse now; Dr. and Mrs. Carlyon were not -wealthy people, and when the children were no longer babies Mrs. -Carlyon had felt that she must, if possible, manage with only two -maid-servants. But Nurse was so fond of her “babies,” as she called -them, that she asked to stay on as nurse-housemaid, in the place of -Prudence, the housemaid, who was just leaving to be married, and she -did so, to the delight and comfort of every one. - -Priscilla did not call Nurse now to help her to get ready; she was -learning to do a great many things for herself, and her toilet was a -very simple one. She passed a brush vigorously over her curls, replaced -her sun-hat, plunged her hands into the jug--it was too heavy for her -to lift--rubbed the dirt off on the towel, slipped on a clean holland -coat, which she found in the drawer, and ran down again. - -Loveday was standing at the dining-room door, with a paint-brush in -one hand and a cake of paint in the other; her face was streaked with -paints of different colours. - -“I want to go for a drive too. Shall I?” she asked eagerly, when she -saw Priscilla. - -“No,” said Priscilla, “you can’t.” Then she suddenly remembered Miss -Potts, who was an “only,” and how she longed for a little sister like -Loveday, and how dreadful it would be to be without her, and quite -suddenly her mood changed, and all her ill-temper vanished. - -“We will ask father,” she said; “I expect he will say ‘Yes.’” - -But father did not say “Yes” at once; he thought it would be better for -her not to go. - -“It would be very bad for you, dear, if you got a cold in that -tooth----” - -“But I will leave it at home,” pleaded Loveday eagerly, “on the -mantelpiece, and wrapped up.” - -“I did not mean the tooth itself, you monkey; I meant the place where -it came out from.” - -“I’ll keep my mouth shut as tight as tight can be, and put my -handkerchief up to hold it all the time.” - -“I should think if she had a shawl round her face she would not take -cold,” said Priscilla, with the old-fashioned motherly air she wore -sometimes. - -“Very well, let Miss Persistency come,” said Dr. Carlyon, laughing, -“only Nurse had better take some of that paint off her face first, or -the people in Lantig will think I am bringing a wild Indian to the -village.” - -Loveday shrieked with delight. - -“Oh, I wish they would!” she cried, jumping about with excitement. -“Then I’d scream and growl and frighten them so, they would all run -away from me, and--and----” - -“If you scream you will get the cold air in that sore gum of yours,” -said the doctor warningly, “and then we shall have you screaming on the -other side of your mouth.” - -Loveday stood for a moment thinking very seriously, and moving her -mouth from side to side. - -“I can’t do it on only one side,” she announced, with an air of -disappointment. “I scream with all my mouth at once. Daddy, tell me how -to.” - -“Oh dear, no; we don’t want to have you practising screaming all day -long. Besides, I couldn’t now; why, I haven’t done such a thing since I -was a boy! Now fly! If you are not ready in five minutes I shall have -to start without you.” - -Loveday vanished in a flash, shouting for “Nurse! Nurse!” all the way -she ran. - -“Quick, quick, Nurse! Do hurry!” they heard her calling frantically. -“Dress me quickly; I am going with daddy, and he won’t wait more than -a minute;” and then they heard Nurse running, as most people did run -when Loveday called. - -In a very short time she appeared again, with a dainty pink shawl -pinned about her neck and mouth, and in her hand a little pink parasol -with white may-blossom all over it. - -“It matches my shawl, Nurse said,” she explained gravely, “and the -shawl _is_ rather hot, so I thought I’d bring this to keep me cool. -I do think it is so lovely,” she went on, gazing admiringly at the -parasol--which was just a size larger than her hat--and particularly at -the handle, which had a little bunch of red egglets at the top. - -It certainly was a pretty little thing; it had been a birthday present, -and when it came had filled Loveday with joy and Priscilla with longing -that her birthday could be changed from December to May, which was -Loveday’s month. - -“Now jump up,” said Dr. Carlyon. “Hocking is waiting to fasten you in.” - -Hocking lifted up Loveday, but Priscilla climbed up by herself, and -seated herself outside Loveday, and then Hocking passed the strap -around them, and fastened them in safely. - -“I don’t think I need be strapped in,” said Priscilla. “I am old enough -now not to have it.” - -“Better to be fastened in than to be falling out,” said Hocking, who -never spoke unless he was obliged to, and then never a word more than -he could help. It did not matter much, for he never said anything but -the most foolish things, though he always spoke with an air of the -greatest wisdom. Before Priscilla could say any more Dr. Carlyon came -out and got up beside the children, for he was going to drive himself, -and Hocking was to be left behind. Priscilla was very glad of that. She -did not dislike Hocking, but she liked best to drive without him. She -found it very hard sometimes to think of things to say to him. - -Then at last they started, and drove away up through the street, where -nearly every one had a nod or a smile for them, or a touch of the hat -or a word to say. The sun was shining brightly, and the air was so -clear that when they reached the top of the hill some distance out in -the country they could see for miles. In one direction, but very far -away, were what looked like pure white hills; these were china-clay -mines, their father told them, where the clay was being dug out to make -cups and saucers and plates, and all sorts of things. - -“I think my mug must have come from there,” said Loveday gravely; “it -looks all white like that. Yes, I’m sure it’s the same; it has got ‘A -Present for a Good Child’ on it. Don’t you think it did, daddy?” - -“It is quite likely,” said Dr. Carlyon; and Loveday was greatly pleased. - -“It’s nice to see where things come from,” she said, with a gravely -satisfied air. - -In another direction they could see the sea; at least their father told -them it was the sea, but to the children it looked more like the sky. - -“That is the English Channel,” said Dr. Carlyon. - -“_I_ think it is heaven--I mean the sky,” said Priscilla. “Father, -don’t you think that is where the earth and the sky join? They must -meet somewhere, mustn’t they? Do you think if I were to walk on and -on and on--oh, ever so far--I should walk right through into the sky, -and not know that I’d done it until I found myself with nothing but -clouds about me? I should be lost then, shouldn’t I? And I could never -get back again, could I? Oh, wouldn’t it be dreadful to turn round and -find nothing but clouds all around, and over one’s head, and under -one’s feet, and nothing to tell one the way! Just think of it, Loveday; -wouldn’t it be _frightful_?” - -“I’ve been thinking,” said Loveday impatiently, “and I don’t want to -think any more.” - -“Father,” went on Priscilla, “would it be like a sea-fog, only worse?” - -Dr. Carlyon groaned and shook his head despairingly. - -“If I am not driven crazy first with trying to answer your questions,” -he said, “I will take you one day soon to that very place, and then you -will see for yourself that it is sea, and not sky.” - -“But supposing it isn’t all sea, but some of it is sky, and we didn’t -know it, and all got lost!” Priscilla looked up at her father with big, -awed eyes. “I shall hold on to you all the time, father.” - -“Very well. I’ll promise you we won’t walk through the clouds by -mistake, and if they do catch us and wrap us round, we will all be -wrapped round together.” - - - - -CHAPTER III - -ON THE ROAD TO LANTIG - - -By the time Dr. Carlyon and the children had finished discussing the -sea and the sky, they had reached the end of the level high ground and -come to a steep descent, at the bottom of which was another little -stretch of level road, and then a long, long, rather steep hill -up--Lareggan Hill it was called. The country around Trelint was very -hilly indeed; as a rule, if you weren’t going up a hill you were going -down one. Betsy trotted down now in fine style, and along the bit of -level ground, and the pace at which she went carried her a little way -up the hill before her, but not far. She considered she had done her -duty when she had trotted up a little way, and was at perfect liberty -to crawl up the rest of it at her own pace. - -As soon as they slackened speed Priscilla looked up expectantly; it -was always her duty to drive up the hills when she was out with her -father, while he read aloud. As a rule, Dr. Carlyon handed the reins -over to her at once, and took out his book. He was a great reader, -and a very busy man, and unless he read while on his rounds he would -have been scarcely ever able to do so at all. When Hocking was driving -him he read “to himself,” but when Priscilla was his companion he -almost always read aloud to her. Priscilla loved these readings and -these drives more than anything, for though there was often much that -she could not understand, there was also a great deal that she could, -and some that she put her own meaning to, and some that her father -explained. - -But to-day Dr. Carlyon forgot to hand over the reins. Perhaps he was -still busy thinking of the answers to Priscilla’s questions, or perhaps -Loveday and her pink parasol made things seem different. At last, after -looking at him questioningly for a few moments--as well as she could, -that is to say, with Loveday between them--she reached out her hand and -touched the reins. - -“Father, wouldn’t you like me to drive now, while you have a nice -little read?” - -“Dear, dear,” said Dr. Carlyon, “I had quite forgotten. But can you -drive, squeezed up as you are?” - -“It is rather a squash,” sighed Priscilla. “Don’t you think we might -have the strap undone, father?” - -Her father looked down at them as well as he could for the pink -sunshade. - -“I think you might,” he said. “I don’t want to take four halves of -daughters home to mother. I tell you what we will do: Loveday and her -parasol shall sit on the box-seat behind me, with her feet on your -seat; then she will be safe, unless she deliberately throws herself -out over the back, and I should think that a young woman with a new -paint-box and that pretty sunshade would try hard not to.” - -Dr. Carlyon made Betsy stand still for a moment across the road, -with her nose in the hedge, where she contentedly munched the grass -while they re-arranged themselves. Loveday was quite pleased with the -change, for she had not been able to hold up her sunshade with any -comfort to herself or any one else, so far. If she were not poking it -into Priscilla’s eye, she was digging her father in the ear, while if -she held it over her shoulder and out behind her, she could not see -it, and that, of course, was what she particularly wanted to do. So -she gladly took the seat given her, and was not only rid of the strap, -but was able to hold her parasol out over the back and stare at it all -the time. She thought it threw quite a pretty pink glow over her face; -at least, when she shut one eye, and screwed the other round until -she could see her own nose, her nose looked quite pink, and if her -nose did, of course her face did. She asked Priscilla about it, but -Priscilla was busy attending to the arrangement of the rugs and the -reins, and then to her driving. - -Dr. Carlyon coaxed Betsy out of the hedge, produced a book, and on -they went again. It was really very lovely; the sun was shining, but -the breeze was cool and soft, and the larks were singing and soaring -up, up, up, till nothing was left of them but their voices; then down, -down, down, with a swoop and a flutter, until they were so low that the -children could see them hovering and darting like big brown musical -butterflies. The scent of clover wafted out from the fields, and of -honeysuckle from the hedges. - -“Oh, I _am_ so glad I was born,” exclaimed Priscilla, with a deep-drawn -sigh of satisfaction. - -Dr. Carlyon smiled. - -“I hope you will always say the same, and in that same voice, Prissy,” -he said. “Now, what shall we read? I have the ‘Ingoldsby Legends’ here; -shall I read to you about the Babes in the Wood?” - -“Please,” said Priscilla. - -She wondered a little that her father should have chosen anything -so babyish. He brought out all kinds of books and papers to read to -her, but they were always grown-up books and papers, and, as I said -before, Priscilla very often did not understand them. But to-day it was -quite thrilling and fascinating, and Priscilla listened with a face -of deepest sympathy and not a smile, as she heard of the poor dying -parents, and the woes of the hapless children. - -“Oh, how dreadful!” she cried, as, later on, her father read slowly -through all the dreadful things that happened to the wicked old man. -“And his children let him die in the workhouse? They must have been -very bad children. I don’t believe the poor Babes would have done so, -if they had been alive. Loveday and I would have taken care----” - -“No, I wouldn’t!” broke in Loveday. “It served him right for wanting -them to be killed. I wouldn’t have given him anything if he had -asked me--oh, ever so many times--not even a hot-water bottle, or an -‘extra-strong’ peppermint like Ellen takes. I’d--I’d have pulled all -his teefs out.” - -“He wouldn’t have minded, I expect, if he had had a shilling for each,” -said Priscilla, forgetting the wrongs of the Babes, and remembering her -own. “Father, I had two teeth out a little while ago, and I didn’t -have even a penny given me, but Loveday had a shilling for one!” - -“You poor little injured mortal,” cried her father, laughing down at -her. “I expect, though, you have two nice teeth in place of them by -this time; that is something to be grateful for. Many people would be -glad of two nice, strong, new teeth.” - -“Yes,” said Priscilla, nodding her head gravely. “Miss Potts would. -Do you know, father, she had out all hers, and nobody ever gave her -anything. Doesn’t it seem unkind? And she hasn’t got any brothers, or -sisters either--she has lost them all.” - -“Dear, dear, how sad! Have you and Miss Potts been telling your woes to -each other, and mingling your tears? ” - -“I didn’t cry,” said Priscilla, “but my throat felt funny. It must be -dreadful to be an ‘only’!” - -“I wish I was,” said a little voice over their shoulders with a deep, -deep sigh; “then p’r’aps I should be able to drive sometimes.” - -Priscilla turned round, shocked and indignant. - -“Well, Loveday, you can’t have everything!” she cried. “You’ve got a -paint-box, and I haven’t; and you’ve got a parasol, and I----” - -“But I can’t paint here,” protested Loveday. “I want to go home now to -see if my paint-box is all safe,” she added suddenly. - -Priscilla’s eyes twinkled wickedly. - -“I shouldn’t be surprised if Geoffrey is home using all your paints.” - -Loveday’s face fell, and her eyes filled with anxiety. - -“Do you really think so? Do you really, Prissy?” she asked. Then her -face brightened. “Oh no; he can’t be, ’cause I hid them where I know he -wouldn’t think of looking!” - -“Would you like to come and sit between us again?” asked her father. - -“No, fank you; but I’d like Priscilla to sit here, and I’d have her -place and drive. She may hold my parasol if she likes--if she doesn’t -open it,” she added. - -“Priscilla is too big to sit where you are. Would you like to sit down -on the mat at our feet?” - -“No, fank you; but I’d like to sit where Priscilla is.” - -“But where can Priscilla sit?” - -“Can’t she walk just a little way?” - -“I am afraid not.” - -“Well, I’d like to sit in her seat,” persisted Loveday; “and put my -head on yours, and go to sleep.” - -“Oh, so you want my place as well as Prissy’s! You aren’t at all a -greedy little person, are you? Where are we to sit? On the shafts, or -the steps, or must we run behind? I will tell you what we will do. I -will sit in Priscilla’s place and hold you on my knee, and Priscilla -shall have the box-seat and drive us. Will that please your High -Mightiness?” - -“Yes, that will be lovely,” agreed Loveday, quite delighted; “and I’ll -hold my parasol over us both.” - -“That will be charming; only try not to take out both my eyes. What -would mother say if you took back my two eyes on two tips of your -sunshade?” - -“Mine isn’t a sunshade,” said Loveday. - -“Parasol, then. What is the difference between a parasol and a -sunshade? Do tell me, for I don’t know.” - -“I don’t know what a sunshade is, I’m sure,” said Loveday, with a lofty -air, “but this is a parasol. I know it said so in the letter that came -with it, and the person who bought it ought to know.” - -“Which has Priscilla? A sunshade or a parasol?” - -“Priscilla hasn’t got either. You see, her birthday is in the winter; -it would be silly to give her a parasol.” - -“I understand. If your birthday is in the winter, you don’t feel the -sun. I expect that is why no one ever gave me one.” - -At which idea Loveday shrieked with laughter. “Fancy daddy with a -parasol!” she cried. “What a silly daddy you would look!” - -And in her excitement she lowered her own, and caught it in Priscilla’s -hair. - -“Poor Priscilla won’t have a wig or a parasol either, if you aren’t -more careful of her,” said Dr. Carlyon, trying to rescue his eldest -daughter’s curls from his younger daughter’s parasol. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -A ROOMFUL OF BABIES, AND A GIANT’S CHAIR - - -“Now then, let’s change places,” said Loveday impatiently, as -Priscilla’s last curl was freed. - -“Oh no; you _must_ wait until we have quite reached the top of the -hill! You don’t want to make poor Betsy stand here with the carriage -dragging her back all the time, do you?” - -“I fink Betsy would like to stop and rest for a little while, and I am -_sure_ she wouldn’t mind. She is very strong, and I am not a bit heavy. -I don’t suppose she feels whether I am in the carriage or not. Do you -think she does?” - -“She hears you, if she doesn’t feel you,” said Dr. Carlyon. - -“Do you think that Priscilla and I and your medicine-case, all put -together, weigh as much as you do, father?” - -“I think that if we had waited a year or two before we chose a name for -you, we should have called you ‘Chatterpie’ instead of Loveday.” - -“Oh, I wish you had!” cried Loveday. “Wouldn’t it have been funny: -Chatterpie Jane Carlyon? Now, Prissy, _do_ make Betsy stop; we have -come to the very top. It is quite flat here.” - -“I am going to draw up near that gate,” said Priscilla firmly, “so that -I can smell the charlock in that field.” - -“That horrid weed!” said Dr. Carlyon. “You surely don’t like that? -Whoa, Betsy!” And without much coaxing Betsy came to a standstill by -the gate of the field where the charlock grew. - -“I love it,” said Priscilla, drawing in deep breaths of the -charlock-scented air; “it always reminds me of--of--oh, -something--drives, and nice things, and sunny days, and the day you -gave me ‘Grimm’s Fairy Tales,’ father.” - -“I will get down now,” said her father, “then you must slip up on to -the box-seat, and I will get up on the other side and take Loveday on -my lap.” - -Priscilla was delighted. She did not say much, but she was in a perfect -rapture of joy at being given the box-seat, and allowed to drive on the -level, and even downhill. She had never done so much before, and she -thought she should never, never forget this happy day. She longed to -get down and hug Betsy, and pat her as her father was doing. Instead, -she looked up at the darting, thrilling larks, and sniffed in the smell -of the charlock. It could not really have been the scent that she -loved, but the associations it had, and the thoughts it brought to her; -and she felt that she should love it more than ever after this day. - -Then Dr. Carlyon got up and took Loveday on his knee, and on they went -again. Presently they saw a cart coming towards them, and Priscilla’s -heart beat a little faster as she realised that she would have to pass -it. She did not say anything, but her cheeks grew very red, and she -felt a great desire to take one rein in each hand; it seemed to her -that she could pull Betsy in better if she did; but she did not do it; -she knew it was not the right way to hold the reins, and she was rather -proud of her skill as a driver. - -“You know which side of the road to keep, don’t you?” asked her father. -“You haven’t forgotten the verse I taught you, have you?” - -“No,” said Priscilla. “At least, I remember most of it. - - “‘The rules of the road are a paradox quite.’” - -Then she paused. “Um-um, I never can remember that second line; but it -doesn’t matter, it doesn’t tell you anything. I know the others-- - - “‘If you keep to the left you are sure to be right, - If you keep to the right you are wrong.’” - -Priscilla did not know what “paradox” meant, but she thought the last -two lines were wonderfully clever, and she always said them to herself -when she was driving. The worst of it was, she could not always decide -in a moment which was her left hand and which her right. She had to -think of the nursery at home, where, if she faced the window, the -gas-bracket was on her left hand, and she had to picture herself there, -facing the window, and then she knew. But she had not always time to -think of those things, particularly when she was driving. - -Now if the boy, who was coming nearer and nearer, had only drawn in to -one side or the other, she would have known what to do, and would have -pulled in to the opposite side, but he came right along the middle of -the road, and the only thing he seemed inclined to do was to drive into -them, until at last poor Priscilla was struck with a sudden panic of -alarm. - -“Father,” she cried, “please, will you drive--I--I don’t know where to -go!” - -Her father, looking up and seeing what was happening, took the reins, -and as he drew Betsy in to the hedge, he called out very sharply to the -stupid boy: - -“Keep to your own side, boy; do you hear? Pull to the left. Don’t take -the whole road. Ah, I see it is Mr. Bennet’s horse and cart you are -in charge of? Well, I shall tell Mr. Bennet that you must have a few -lessons in driving before you can be trusted with a horse again. You -are a danger to every one you meet. You were quite right, Prissy,” he -said, giving her back the reins; “the drivers should be next each other -when passing, but that boy required the whole road and the ditches too. -Would you rather I drove now?” - -“Oh no, thank you, I want to drive again.” - -She felt ashamed of herself for having been so frightened, and made -up her mind to drive past the next vehicle she met, no matter what it -was. A great hay-waggon with a load of hay on it soon loomed in sight, -and for a moment it seemed as though there was no room in the road for -anything else, but Priscilla tried very hard not to be foolish. “The -drivers must pass next each other,” she repeated to herself; but this -driver was walking at the horse’s head, and he was on the far side of -the horse. She would have to go right across the road to pass close by -him. “He must be on the wrong side,” she thought. “Oh dear, what a lot -of men don’t know the rules of the road.” - -When they were safely past she drew a big deep breath of relief, but -she felt very glad that she had managed by herself. - -“Father, don’t you think all the boys should be made to learn at school -that verse you taught me; then they would know better how to drive?” - -“I do indeed,” said Dr. Carlyon; “perhaps they would remember a simple -little thing like that. It isn’t much they do remember six months after -they have left school.” - -“Hocking’s son Ned can draw a pear beautifully,” said Priscilla very -impressively, “but Hocking didn’t seem a bit glad. He said, ‘Better -fit they took and taught ’em how to grow ’em;’ he didn’t see what time -Ned was going to have for drawing pears on a bit of paper when he was -‘prenticed.’ Neither do I,” added Priscilla gravely. - -Dr. Carlyon burst into hearty laughter. - -“Quite true,” he said, “quite true. I am glad Hocking has so much -common sense, and I foresee that some day we shall have you sitting on -School Boards, and such-like.” - -Priscilla supposed a School Board was some sort of hard seat or form, -but she did not like to ask, though she wondered very much why her -father should laugh so about it. - -“I think, though, Prissy, you had better not talk as Hocking does. It -is not quite the way that little girls should speak.” - -Priscilla sighed. - -“I wish I was a boy,” she said earnestly. “I don’t want to sit on -School Boards and things, but I want to talk like Hocking, and to be a -miller’s man, and drive a waggon with four horses, and shout ‘Gee wug.’ -Or else I’d like to be a Coachman or a bus-driver. I would rather be a -miller’s man, though, ’cause I like the little short whip the best; it -is so much easier to crack.” - -“I am sorry,” said her father, smiling at her. “I suppose that driving -poor old Betsy only, and with a long-handled whip, which is never -required, is very poor fun to you, you ambitious young person!” - -“Oh no; I love Betsy, and I love driving her, but, of course, I can’t -drive Betsy always; I am going to earn my own living when I grow up.” - -“Would you have bells on the horse’s harness if you were a miller’s -man?” asked Loveday. - -“Oh yes--a whole lot of dear little brass ones, and I’d keep them -always shining like new.” - -“Well, here we are at Lantig School-house,” said Dr. Carlyon. “Draw -up here, Prissy. Would you two like to come inside, or wait in the -carriage?” - -“Is it vaccinations?” asked Priscilla. - -“Yes, it is vaccinations. I think there will be about a dozen or more -babies to-day.” - -“Then I’ll come. Come along, Loveday, in, and see all the dear little -babies.” - -Priscilla scrambled down, and Dr. Carlyon lifted out Loveday. - -“You look very warm in that shawl,” he said. “I think you might take it -off while you are inside.” - -Loveday, though, preferred to keep it. - -“I’ll unpin it,” she said, “but I think I will wear it, ’cause it goes -with my parasol, and I am going to take in my parasol for the babies to -see. I think they will think it very pretty, don’t you, Priscilla?” - -But Priscilla was already inside the building, gazing with fascinated -eyes at the rows of mothers and babies. The building, which was the -school-house, and stood a little way outside the village, had been -cleared of its usual occupants, and on the forms, which had been moved -back in two lines along the sides, sat a lot of country women, each -one holding a baby. Such jolly babies they were, most of them, great, -plump, smiling, healthy, country babies. Some were too young to notice -anything, and just lay asleep, or staring contentedly about them, but -others sat up and looked at Priscilla and each other and their mothers, -and laughed and crowed, and waggled their bald heads about. They were -all specklessly, spotlessly clean and kissable in their cotton frocks -and big pinafores, and the mothers looked as clean and tidy as the -babies, and most of them were just as smiling. When they saw the doctor -come in the mothers all stood up and curtseyed, and Dr. Carlyon had a -word and a smile for each one. - -“Iss, they’m good enough now, doctor!” said one woman, in answer to his -remark on the babies’ good temper; “but I reckon you’ll soon set ’em -laughing the other side of their faces, poor dears.” - -Loveday, who had become rather shy when she found herself entering a -room so full, stood and looked with interest at the woman who spoke, -and presently drew nearer to her: - -“Does your baby scream on the other side of his face sometimes?” she -asked eagerly. - -For a moment Mrs. Rouse looked at her, not quite understanding her. - -“Iss, that ’e do, missie,” she said at last, “and pretty often too, -when he gets contrairy.” - -“I wish you would tell me how he does it,” said Loveday anxiously; “I -do want to know.” - -But, to her surprise and annoyance, Mrs. Rouse only burst into a peal -of laughter. Loveday could not bear to be laughed at at any time, but -there, before a whole roomful of strangers, it was really dreadful, she -thought. With very red cheeks she turned away and walked straight out -of the school-house, and glad she was that she did, for as she left she -heard Mrs. Rouse telling the others what she had said; after which they -all laughed. - - * * * * * - -Loveday was very mortified and angry. - -“I wish I hadn’t gone in,” she thought; “I won’t look at their babies -again, if they want me to ever so much. _I_ think they are very ugly -babies, and--and I’ll _say_ so if they laugh at me any more.” - -She climbed up into the carriage, and perched herself on the seat, but -very soon she remembered that by-and-by the women and their babies -would all come out by that same door, and she would have to face them -all. When she remembered this she felt she could not possibly stay -there, so she climbed down again and wondered what she should do with -herself. She walked along the road a little way while she pondered, -and at last, around a bend in it, she saw to her great astonishment the -“giant’s arm-chair.” - -The “giant’s arm-chair” stood high up in the hedge-bank beside the -road; it was made of white granite, and the seat of it was as large -as the floor of a small room; it had also an enormously wide, rounded -back, and two large arms; down in front of it, at one corner, was -a smaller block of granite, which was always known as the “giant’s -footstool.” - -Loveday had driven past the great chair very often, and longed to stop -and climb up into it, but until to-day she had never had a chance. In -her delight she forgot all about the women and their laughter. But, -alas! when she reached the chair she found that the seat was far too -high for her to climb up into by herself; it would have taken a very -tall man to lift her high enough to reach it. - -“Never mind, I can sit on the footstool,” she thought; but even that -proved a climb, and it was a difficult matter to get up and hold on to -her parasol all the time. She did manage it, though, after a struggle, -and when she sat up on it, holding her parasol open over her, she felt -quite repaid for her trouble, and very pleased and proud, only she did -wish Priscilla was there too. - -“I wonder if the giant had any little children, and if they used to sit -on this footstool. I expect so. Oh, I _do_ wish Prissy would come and -see me now. She can’t really want to stay and look at those babies any -longer.” - -[Illustration: “THE ‘GIANT’S FOOTSTOOL.’”] - -Only a very low hedge bordered the road on the other side, and beyond -that stretched a large piece of wild moorland, covered with large -blocks of granite. “That was one of the giant’s play-grounds,” her -father had once told her, “when Cornwall was full of giants, and very -probably the great rocks scattered about were the stones they had -thrown at each other in play, or when quarrelling.” - -“I am very glad I didn’t live then,” thought Loveday; “I wonder what -happened to little girls like me. I wonder if they ate them all up! I -expect they did if they caught them sitting in their armchairs,” and a -little thrill of fear ran through her at the thought. It was very wild -and lonely there, with not a living thing in sight, except a few big -crows cawing noisily as they flew overhead, and a few goats clambering -about over the moorland opposite her. If one had not known that there -was the school-house and a little shop and a house round the bend of -the road, one might have felt oneself miles and miles from anywhere, -and anybody. Loveday felt as though she were, and it really seemed to -her that at any minute a big giant might come striding along the wide -white road to have a rest in his chair, and would catch her! - -Of course, she did not really expect him, and she knew there were no -giants nowadays, but she felt she would rather like to see Betsy again, -and be safely in the dear old carriage, where there were rugs and -things to hide under, and she at once scrambled down from the footstool -and ran, not because she was nervous, of course! but because she wanted -a change, and to see Betsy. - -“O Betsy, I am so glad to see you!” she cried, as she ran up to the -dear old horse and hugged her; and Betsy, who had been having “forty -winks,” opened her eyes and looked down at her little mistress with -what was certainly a smile, and she put down her soft nose and snuzzled -her affectionately. Once more Loveday mounted the carriage, but as she -did so she remembered the mothers and babies in the schoolroom. “Oh -dear,” she cried impatiently, “it seems to me I can’t get any rest; if -it isn’t giants it’s mothers! But I know what I’ll do: I will lie down -here, and when I hear them coming I will pull the rug up over me so -that they can’t see me.” - -So she curled herself up on the lower of the two seats, with the rug -all over her except her head. She was only to pull it right up when she -heard any of them coming. But at one moment she thought she heard the -handle of the door being turned, and then she thought she heard voices -and footsteps coming out; and she had so many false alarms and grew so -nervous that at last she snuggled right down under the rug and stayed -there, and then she forgot to listen, and somehow, instead of being in -the carriage she was in the giant’s oven, and oh, it was so hot there -she felt she was being suffocated, when suddenly the oven door was -opened, and such beautiful cool air rushed in, and-- - -“Why, what has the child wrapped herself up like this for?” exclaimed a -voice; “she must be trying to cook herself, I think.” - -“Perhaps she is afraid of getting a cold where her tooth came out,” -said another voice, which was Prissy’s. Loveday roused herself, and sat -up and stretched; she was very hot and tumbled, and rosy and she could -not remember for a moment what had happened. Then out came a woman with -a crying baby in her arms. Loveday recognised Mrs. Rouse, and wanted to -be under the rug again. - -“There, missie! He’s laughing the other side of his face now,” she -said, smiling good-temperedly up at Loveday, and holding out the -sobbing baby for her to see. - -“I don’t think he is at all pretty, whichever side he smiles,” said -Loveday very crossly, and without a ghost of a smile on her own face. -She knew she was rude and unkind, but she felt at that moment that -she wanted to say something nasty, and she said it. Priscilla was -shocked, and her father was vexed with her, but Mrs. Rouse only laughed -good-temperedly. - -“It was your pa that made him to. You must ask him to learn you how to -laugh the other side of your face.” - -“I don’t want to know, thank you,” said Loveday shortly. “Prissy, will -you pin up my shawl, please? If I talk any more I shall catch a cold in -my mouth.” - -Priscilla got up, and, kneeling on the seat beside her little sister, -arranged the shawl very carefully about her. - -“I wouldn’t speak like that if I were you, dear,” she said gently; -“Mrs. Rouse is such a nice, kind woman, and she doesn’t understand -that you don’t like her--her joking.” Loveday jerked away her head -quite crossly, but Priscilla went on. “If you laugh and don’t take any -notice, they won’t think anything about it; but if you look so cross -and say nasty rude things, they will talk ever so much about it.” - -Loveday saw the sense of this, and it seemed so dreadful that she -forced herself to be less disagreeable, and to look at some of the -other babies, and even to smile at some of the mothers, but she could -not forgive Mrs. Rouse quite yet. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -SWEEPING THE DRAWING-ROOM - - -The day after the drive to Lantig, Mrs. Carlyon was having a large -“At Home” in the afternoon--large, that is, for Trelint--and all the -household was very busy. There were cakes to make, and biscuits, and -tea-cakes, and sandwiches, and ices, and all kinds of good things, for -there were not many shops in the town; besides which, it was considered -a point of honour to make most of the things at home. - -Ellen always grew very cross at these times, but she cooked her best, -for every one in Trelint knew who Dr. Carlyon’s cook was; just as -every one knew how many servants every one else had, and who they -were. Nurse, too, was not as patient as usual, she had so many things -on her mind, for where there are only two maids to help, a big party -makes every one very busy, and the children had to amuse themselves -as best they could--at least, Priscilla and Loveday had to; Geoffrey -had gone to spend the day in the country with some friends, glad -enough to escape “such silly things as At Homes,” he said. Priscilla -and Loveday almost wished that they had been invited too, for the day -seemed very long and dull without mother, or Geoffrey, or Nurse. They -were told, too, to keep in the nursery and play, for they would be in -the way anywhere else, but to be told to amuse oneself makes it a very -difficult thing to do; everything seems, at once, to be not the very -least bit amusing. - -The dining-room was to be arranged for the guests to go to, to -partake of tea and coffee when they arrived; and the drawing-room -was, of course, to be decorated with flowers, and arranged a little -differently. Priscilla and Loveday were not wanted anywhere, and they -could not play in the garden, for there had been heavy rain during the -night. - -“Oh dear!” sighed Priscilla, “there is nothing, nothing that I feel I -want to do, and there is more than an hour before we can see the guests -coming.” - -Loveday glanced at the clock, too. “So there is,” she sighed; “it isn’t -free yet.” - -“Don’t be silly,” said Priscilla crossly; “you know you can’t tell the -time, so why pretend?” - -“You said so, too,” protested Loveday; “and I know the people are going -to begin to come at four, ’cause mother said so, and if it is more than -an hour before they come, that shows that it isn’t free yet by the -clock.” - -In her heart Priscilla thought that it was very clever of her little -sister to have found out all that, but she did not tell her so; she -thought Loveday was a vain enough little person already. She dropped -down with a weary sigh beside her doll’s house, but they had already -given that a thorough cleaning from top to bottom, and there was -nothing more to do to it. They had dressed and undressed all their -dolls and put them to bed, so that they were settled for the night, -and wanted no more attention. Every animal had gone out of the ark for -a walk, and marched back to it again, and there really seemed nothing -left to do that was worth doing. - -“I _wish_ I could help mother,” sighed Priscilla, who always loved real -work much more than play work--she would far rather help to dust a room -than dust or tidy her doll’s house; “and if they are so busy,” she -added, “I am sure there must be lots that I can do.” - -After another moment or two had passed, she shut the doll’s house door -with a bang, and got up from the floor. “I am going downstairs just a -teeny-tiny way,” she said softly. “Don’t you come too, Loveday; you -needn’t do everything that I do.” - -But it was really too much to expect Loveday to stay in that dull -nursery by herself, and very soon she was creeping out after Priscilla. - -Priscilla had reached the foot of the nursery stairs, and was standing -on the landing looking over the banisters, and listening for any -sounds of life below, and Loveday joined her. No one was about, that -they could see, but from the dining-room came the rattle of china. -Presently, however, they heard their mother’s voice; she was speaking -to Nurse. - -“I will leave you to finish arranging the cups and saucers,” she said, -“and I will go to the kitchen and place the cakes out on the plates; -then it will be time for me to dress. I ought to rest for a few -minutes, for I am so tired already I can scarcely stand.” - -Priscilla and Loveday drew back while their mother passed along the -hall below, for they did not want to be seen; they were doing no harm, -they thought, and it was very much more interesting to be there than in -the nursery. They must run away, though, before mother came upstairs to -dress, but by that time it would be nearly time for them to watch from -the nursery windows to see the first guests arrive. - -“I do wish I could help mother,” sighed Priscilla again. “She is so -tired, and has such lots to do. Can’t we do something to help? Oh!” -with sudden delight, “I know what I’ll do! I’ll dust the drawing-room! -Now, don’t you come too, Loveday. I thought of it first, and I can do -it by myself, and you are sure to break something and get us both a -scolding.” - -But Loveday was not to be put off in that way, and, to save a howl, -Priscilla said, “Well, come along; you may come if you will promise to -be good.” - -The drawing-room was on the very landing on which they stood. Priscilla -crept over to the door and looked in. Of course it was empty, and to -her it looked as though the furniture had all been pushed back, just -as when the room was going to be swept, only there were no dust-sheets -over the things. - -“I believe it hasn’t even been swept yet!” she whispered, in a shocked -voice. “We’ll sweep it first, shall we?” - -It was a grand idea, and Loveday agreed delightedly. Nurse still kept -her nursery brushes in a cupboard on the top landing; they would get -those, then no one would know what they were doing, and when Nurse came -up presently, all hot and tired, to sweep and dust the room she would -find it all done, and have a most beautiful surprise; and she would -not scold them at all; she would be so glad, and perhaps she would let -them have some of the “At Home” cakes for their tea! - -They hurried up the stairs very gently, and Loveday carried down a -long-handled brush, while Priscilla carried the dustpan in one hand and -the brush in the other, so that they should not clatter. - -“Now close the door,” whispered Priscilla; and Loveday turned to do -it, bringing her broom-handle with a sharp tap against a picture which -hung by it. Priscilla was too busy to hear the blow, or to see what had -happened. - -“It was such a _little_ tap,” said Loveday to herself, as she gazed -ruefully up at the crack which ran quite across the glass of the -picture. - -Priscilla was on her knees by that time, brushing the carpet as hard as -she could with the short-handled brush. - -“What shall I do?” asked Loveday. “I can’t use this brush; it is so -tall it knocks my head.” - -“You shall dust,” panted Priscilla, looking up with a very red face. - -“But I haven’t a duster!” - -“You have a handkerchief, haven’t you? Use that.” - -“No, I haven’t,” said Loveday. - -“Oh, how you do worry! Here, take mine!” - -Loveday pounced on it gladly, and began to rub the legs of a chair. - -“I think mother will be surprised to see the carpet so well swept. -Won’t she?” said Priscilla contentedly. - -“Yes; and to see everything so well dusted. P’r’aps the guests will -notice it, too, and will say, ‘Here, Mrs. Carlyon, is sixpence for the -person who dusts your room so well.’” - -But Priscilla scouted the idea with the utmost scorn. - -“As if they would!” she cried. “Why, you silly child, people don’t say -things about other people’s rooms, not even if they aren’t dusted at -all. Of course, you can dust easy things like chairs, but I’ll have to -do the vases, and all the--take care, Loveday, the door is opening; oh, -do mind your head!” and Loveday stepped back just in time to allow the -door to be opened a little way. “Who is there? You can’t come in yet,” -cried Priscilla. - -But the door opened wider, and Nurse’s agonised face appeared, and -behind her, gazing amazedly at Priscilla through a haze of dust, stood -Lady Carey. - -“Miss Priscilla! Oh, what _are_ you doing? Oh, you naughty, naughty, -mischievous children!” cried Nurse, horrified, and not knowing what to -do, or which to attend to first. “Excuse me, ma’am,” she said, turning -to the visitor, “but--but--oh, what can I do? The guests will all be -coming in a few minutes, and the room is like this!” - -Lady Carey smiled. - -“Are the little people too zealously industrious?” she asked. She saw -at once that something was amiss, and wanted to make as light of it as -possible. “How do you do, children? Are you Mrs. Carlyon’s two little -daughters?” - -Priscilla dropped her brush, sprang to her feet, and went forward to -shake hands. Her checks were crimson with hard work and shame. - -“How do you do?” she said breathlessly. “Yes, I am the eldest; I am -Priscilla, and this is Loveday. Loveday” (in an angry aside), “stop -dusting, _do_! I am very sorry the dust is flying,” she went on, -turning to Lady Carey again. “We wanted to help mother and Nurse -because they were so busy getting ready for the ‘At Home,’ and I was -sweeping the carpet and Loveday was dusting the easy things, like -chairs and table-legs, but we didn’t know it was time for the guests to -be coming. Nurse,” turning to her with a distressed air, “what can we -do?” - -“Aren’t you _very_ early?” asked Loveday of Lady Carey, as soon as she -had shaken hands with her, and said “How d’ye do?” - -“Well, you see, dear, I am not come to the ‘At Home’; I did not know -your mother was having one. I came to return your mother’s call, and I -have unfortunately chosen an inconvenient day.” Then, turning to the -servant: “The dust has gone, I think, and I can sit here--unless, of -course, you want to be going round with a duster.” But before Nurse -could reply she went on: “No, I tell you what I would much rather do, -and what would be by far the best plan,” she added kindly; “I have some -other calls to pay, and Mrs. Carlyon is very busy, and as I wanted to -have a nice long talk with her, I will go away now and come one day -soon when she has more time. Don’t tell her about this call, at least -until after all her guests have gone, and then be sure to tell her I -quite understood, and would rather come when I can have her all to -myself.” - -“I--I--but I am sure my mistress would wish to see you, ma’am,” said -Nurse, who was perplexed to know what she ought to do. - -“Yes, I know,” said Lady Carey; “but it would be much more pleasant -for us both if I called another day. Now let me out, and hurry back to -set this room to rights. It is striking the quarter to four. Good-bye, -children. I hope I shall see you again soon.” - -“Good-bye,” said Priscilla, but very, very shamefacedly; and as soon -as Lady Carey had gone she flew up the stairs to her own room, and, -flinging herself on her bed, burst into tears of shame and pain. - -“And I meant to help! I meant to make such a nice surprise for mother, -and oh! I’ve done such a _dreadful_ thing!” and poor Priscilla sobbed -and sobbed until her head ached. - -Presently soft footsteps came lightly up the stairs and to her room, -but Priscilla, with her hot face buried in the bed-clothes, did not -hear them. - -“Prissy, dear,” said her mother, as gently and kindly as though nothing -had happened, “will you do something for me? Will you run down very -quickly and help Nurse to dust the drawing-room? If you will help her, -there will be just time to set it all straight again before our guests -arrive.” - -“Oh yes, mother.” - -Priscilla scrambled off the bed in a moment, and pushed her hair back -from her face. - -“Here is a nice soft duster,” said mother; “run quickly, dear.” - -But Priscilla, using the soft duster to mop her eyes with, stayed for -just a moment to throw her arms about her mother’s neck. - -“Oh!” she cried, “I do think you are the very nicest mother in all the -world. I _am_ so glad I haven’t got any other,” and she hugged and -kissed her again. - -“Now, don’t wipe your eyes on the duster any more, dear,” said Mrs. -Carlyon laughingly, and returning the kiss, “or it will make the things -quite dull instead of polishing them.” - -Priscilla did not answer; she was gazing at her mother, lost in -admiration. Mrs. Carlyon had on a pretty brown silk gown, trimmed with -bands of little pink roses and green leaves, and the gown suited her -fair hair and delicate complexion to a nicety. - -“I don’t wonder father married you, mother. You do look nice in that -gown.” - -“Run away and dust my drawing-room,” cried Mrs. Carlyon, laughing -again, “and don’t waste time thinking of flattering things to say to -your mother. Hurry; it is close on four, and people will be coming -soon.” - -“I wonder,” thought Priscilla, as she ran off, “if I shall ever have a -gown like that. But”--with a sigh--“if I had I shouldn’t look as pretty -in it as mother does.” - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -MRS. TICKELL, MRS. WALL, AND AN ACCIDENT - - -“Infants!” said Geoffrey, popping his head round the nursery door, -“come up in the orchard; I’ve rigged up such a jolly swing there!” - -Priscilla and Loveday looked up from their play quite excited by the -news. They were keeping a shop at the moment--a book-shop--and had all -their nursery books and all the bits of paper and string they could -collect arranged before them on the window-seat, which made a splendid -counter. Books made such nice parcels, and were so easy to wrap up. -On the counter, too, they had an old Japanese jewel-case that their -mother had given them some time ago; it had two drawers, with handles, -so made a beautiful till for their money, and they were doing such good -business that already the till was heavy with the weight of the cowries -it held. - -Priscilla had just wrapped up her “Playing Trades,” and handed -it across the counter to a customer, saying, “That will be -half-a-crown--thank you,” and was searching the till for a -sixpenny-piece, when Geoffrey opened the nursery door and popped his -head in. Business came to a standstill at once, and the two little -shopwomen hurried away, leaving books, and till, and everything. -Half-way down the stairs Priscilla stopped. - -“Loveday,” she said, “don’t you think it would be rather nice if you -bought some sweets with your penny, and we ate them while we were -swinging?” - -Loveday nodded. - -“You will both wait for me while I am gone to buy them, won’t you? You -won’t be mean, and go on and begin to swing till I come?” - -“All right,” said Geoffrey; “we’ll wait if you don’t take too long.” -Loveday, being the only one possessed of any wealth, had to be treated -with consideration. “Cut along, infant!” - -Loveday had actually taken two steps, but Geoffrey’s words brought her -back again. - -“I don’t think you ought to call us infants,” she said severely. “It -doesn’t sound at all nice, and if you do it again I don’t think I shall -give you a single sweet. We aren’t infants; father said so. Infants -are--are--well, we aren’t infants.” - -“I think we will go on and begin to swing,” said Geoffrey, to tease -her--“don’t you, Prissy? If we wait for the end of this conversation I -am afraid the tree will die of old age.” - -“I don’t know how you can like to be such a rude boy,” said Loveday -cuttingly. “Nobody thinks rude boys funny or nice.” - -There were two sweet-shops quite near to Dr. Carlyon’s house, and the -children were allowed to go alone to both of them. Mrs. Tickell’s was -on one side of the street, and Mrs. Wall’s was almost opposite. Mrs. -Tickell was the favourite with the children; she was always more -pleasant and smiling and patient than Mrs. Wall, and gave more generous -measure. On the other hand, the children found Mr. Tickell rather a -drawback. True, he was not often in the shop, as he was generally busy -in the bakehouse, for the Tickells, in addition to having sweets and -apples, and prize-packets and little china figures, made cakes and -pasties and jam-tarts to sell. But when Mr. Tickell was in the shop he -always stood by the half-door, and asked the most trying questions, -such as: “Now, can you say to me your six times right through without a -mistake?” or, “Can you tell me when Henry the Eighth began to reign?” -Once he even asked Geoffrey to say his dates right through, before the -Conquest and all. It was really dreadful, and as he always stood by the -door, there was no escaping him. - -But Mrs. Tickell was so kind, and Emily, their daughter, was so beloved -by the children, that they bore with Mr. Tickell for their sakes, and -the shop remained their favourite. - -Mr. Wall was of no account at all; the children had a notion that he -would be kind if he were left to himself, but that he was afraid of -Mrs. Wall. He very seldom spoke, and when he did it was only to say -something that they all thought very silly, such as “Fine weather this -for little ducks,” or something equally aggravating. So they put him -down in their minds as a weak creature, and took very little interest -in him. Mrs. Wall was a very solemn and unsmiling person. She never -grew friendly as Mrs. Tickell did. Priscilla heard some one once -telling a story of the Walls’ only son, who had died, she gathered, in -some tragic, mysterious way a long time ago, before she was born or -was old enough to remember anything. But what struck her even more than -the story was the remark, “And Mrs. Wall has never smiled since.” - -After that, whenever she was within sight of Mrs. Wall, Priscilla -was always watching her to see if this was true or not. She would -hardly believe that she did not forget sometimes, and smile before she -remembered; but Priscilla had never yet seen her do so. - -“It must be dreadful for Mr. Wall to have her always looking so--so -cross,” she confided to her father one day. “As for him, I don’t think -he could smile if he wanted to; his mouth is so very wide it couldn’t -possibly go any wider.” - -To-day Loveday ran off with her penny in her hand to buy some -bull’s-eyes at Mrs. Tickell’s, but, as usual, she examined both the -shop windows thoroughly first, that she might get some idea as to how -best to lay out her money, and she was very glad she did, for in Mrs. -Wall’s window there was quite a large assortment of new things; there -were pink and white sugar mice, black liquorice babies with red lips -and blue eyes, sugar bird-cages, and little cocoa-nut fish-cakes. They -were all two a penny but the mice, and those were a farthing each. - -Loveday felt, after gazing for some time, that she must have one of the -dolls, and that she wanted two of the mice. So she pushed open the shop -door and went in. A bell behind the door jangled loudly, so Loveday -knew that Mrs. Wall was upstairs “cleaning,” and that Mr. Wall was -absent, for the bell was always unhung and placed on the counter if -they were at hand. - -Loveday liked to find the shop empty--it gave her time to look about; -but to-day, when she had looked about her for a few minutes, she -remembered that Geoffrey and Priscilla were waiting for her, and would -begin without her if she did not make haste, so she hammered sharply on -the counter with her penny, to make Mrs. Wall hurry. Silence followed. -She waited again what seemed to her a very long time, then knocked once -more, this time even more loudly. Still silence. - -During the next few minutes Loveday quite changed her mind as to what -she would spend her money on. She suddenly remembered that Emily -Tickell had told her she had some beautiful rose-drops coming in, and -some honey-drops; and Loveday loved both. Besides which, the thought -crossed her mind that it might not be easy to divide the two mice and -the one doll. The mice were very hard to break, and she could not give -the whole doll to one; it would not be fair. She wished then that she -had not come to Mrs. Wall’s, and was just wondering if she could creep -out of the shop again without being seen, when she heard a sound, and -Mrs. Wall opened the little glass-topped door, and came up the two -steps leading from the parlour to the shop. She looked rather crosser -and sterner than usual. - -“I had only just gone up to change,” she said sharply, “and as sure as -ever I go, that bell is certain to ring. What can I do for you, miss?” - -Loveday felt uncomfortable; her heart was quite set now on getting the -rose-drops and the honey-drops, and not the doll or the mice, but what -could she say or do! Then a way out of her difficulty suddenly opened -out before her. - -“Please, can you change a penny for me?” she asked very politely. - -Mrs. Wall did not say anything, but her lips set a little more tightly -than usual as she went to the till and took out two halfpennies. - -“Thank you,” said Loveday, with a sigh of relief, and, hurrying out, -she flew across the road to the Tickells’ shop, almost opposite. As -she reached the door she glanced back for one more look at Mrs. Wall’s -fascinating store, but all she saw was Mrs. Wall’s cold stern eye -looking after her with anything but an amiable expression in it, and -she turned with relief to Emily Tickell’s welcoming smile. - -When at last she reached the orchard with her two precious packets in -her hands, Geoffrey and Priscilla were busy arranging a bit of wood for -a seat for the swing. They had not been swinging, they assured her, at -least only just trying it to see if it was all right, and Loveday was -satisfied and distributed her sweets. - -But as soon as the sweets were in their mouths they began, and what a -glorious time they did have for a while! - -They swung so high, and it seemed so dangerous and exciting, and -sometimes they took it in turns to swing, sometimes two got on -together, and once even the three of them. - -“Perhaps we hadn’t better all get on together again,” said Priscilla -after that, looking at the slim skipping-rope they had all been -depending on. “It isn’t a very strong one, is it?” - -“Strong enough,” said Geoffrey. - -“Let’s play something else now,” said Loveday, flinging herself down on -the grass. “I am tired of swinging, and it makes me feel rather sick.” - -Priscilla was sitting in the swing, just lazily moving it. “What shall -we do, then?” she asked reluctantly. “I don’t think we will stop -_quite_ yet; let’s go on for a little while longer, just one or two -more swings, and you watch us, Loveday, like a darling.” - -“I can’t watch you,” said Loveday; “it makes my head swing too.” - -“I tell you what,” said Geoffrey, “we’ll just have one more good turn, -then I’ll get out the sticks and hoops, and we’ll have a game of ‘La -Grace.’ You sit where you are, Prissy, and when I’ve given you a good -start I’ll spring up at the back of you. Loveday, you can look away if -it makes you giddy;” and with the same he sent the swing with Prissy -in it flying up through the air, then back she came, and up she went -again and back; but this time Geoffrey held on the ropes, and as the -swing swung forward the third time, he sprang up on his feet on to the -seat. The ropes quivered and strained, and for a moment their flight -was checked; then on they went again, up and down and up; then, with a -scream and a heavy thud, they both came down to the ground, Priscilla -underneath, Geoffrey on top of her. - -Loveday was too bewildered to cry or to scream. At first, in fact, she -did not realise what had happened. She thought they were playing some -game, and that in a moment they would both jump up with a laugh and a -shout; and yet--Priscilla was so very white and still, and lay so long, -and though Geoffrey often groaned in fun and pretended to be hurt, it -was somehow not quite like this; and when at last Geoffrey tried to get -up, but only screamed and fell back again, Priscilla still never made a -sound or a movement. Geoffrey made one more effort, and dragged himself -off Priscilla; but he could not get up, for every time he tried to -raise himself on his arm, the pain was greater than he could bear. - -“I believe I’ve broken my shoulder--or something!” he gasped. “Loveday, -run quick, and tell some one to come! Get father, and--Prissy, -Prissy”--he broke off to call his sister. “Oh, why doesn’t she open her -eyes? Prissy, speak; do speak.” - -He tried to move her, but he could not manage that. - -“Run, Loveday, as fast as ever you can--do!” - -He looked so ill and scared, and Priscilla looked so dreadful, lying -so still with her arms all crumpled up under her, that Loveday nearly -fainted with fear; but she ran and ran as she had never run before, and -all the way her clear shrill voice rang out: “Daddy, mother, Nurse, -come quick! Where are you? Oh, do come!” She called so loudly, and -there was such real distress in her voice, that by the time she reached -the house her father was hurrying out to meet her; and before she had -gasped out half her tale of woe, he had gathered her up in his arms, -and, followed by, it seemed, the whole household, was rushing to the -orchard, where Priscilla lay as Loveday had left her, and Geoffrey, as -pale now as Priscilla, was still struggling to get up and at the same -time to choke back the tears of pain that would force their way up. - -Then there followed a busy, sad, painful time, when, between them all, -they got the two injured ones to bed, and attended to their hurts. -Geoffrey’s shoulder was not fractured, but it was dislocated, and he -had strained and bruised both arms. - -“If you had fallen backwards,” said Dr. Carlyon gravely, “instead of -forwards, you would probably have dislocated your neck. How could you -run yourself and your sisters into such a danger? It was most culpable -of you.” - -“It seemed all right,” groaned poor Geoffrey, “and I don’t know now why -we fell. The branch was a strong one----” - -“Yes, but the rope was not, and you put it up loosely, so that it -rubbed every time you swung, and, of course, rubbed through in a very -little while. You shall see the frayed ends when you are well enough; -perhaps it will help to teach you how a swing should not be hung.” - -Poor Priscilla had a fractured arm and a cut head, and was badly -bruised all over; and when, poor child, she awoke from her -unconsciousness, she found herself one big block of pain from head -to heels, or so it seemed to her. But worst of all, perhaps, was the -dreadful pain in her head from the blow, and the jerk, and the shock. -She could not endure a ray of light, nor a sound, nor to speak or be -spoken to. - -Poor Loveday crept into the bedroom time after time to be near her. -She brought her best books and her favourite toys, her paint-box, and -even her pink parasol to lend, or to give to Priscilla, if by doing so -Priscilla could only be got to look better and to take some interest in -things. But Priscilla lay very still and white, moaning occasionally, -and did not look at Loveday or her treasures, or seem able to take any -interest in anything, and poor little Loveday crept away again, feeling -perfectly miserable, and at her wits’ end, for if those things failed, -she really did not know what could be done. And if she went to Geoffrey -she only felt more miserable, for he was so remorseful and unhappy, and -kept on saying such dreadful things about himself for having caused it -all, that one could not dare ask him to play, or even to read aloud, or -to do anything. - -At last Loveday grew to look so ill and moped, that her father and -mother decided it would be better for her to go away for a little while -to more cheerful surroundings, or she would be ill too. But then came -the question: “Where could she go?” - -“Granny would have her, and be delighted to,” said Mrs. Carlyon, “but I -don’t know how to get her up there. I couldn’t possibly travel up and -back all in one day, and I should not like to be longer away from home -just now. Nor can you be spared either.” - -“And I would like her to have sea air,” said Dr. Carlyon. “I think it -would be much better for her.” - -“And I would like her to be where she could have a child or so to play -with,” added Mrs. Carlyon. - -So it seemed they had to find a place for Loveday with children, -not very far from home, but by the sea. It was Nurse who settled the -difficulty at last. - -“I suppose you wouldn’t like to send her to Bessie, down at -Porthcallis, sir, would you? She’s got a nice little cottage, and close -to as nice a bit of safe, sandy beach as you could find anywhere, made -on purpose for children, I should think, and her own little boy must be -nearly as old as Miss Loveday. Bessie does understand children too, and -she is very fond of Miss Loveday.” - -This was one of Nurse’s great anxieties. She could not bear the idea -of her “baby” being sent away; but if it was better for her that she -should--and Nurse saw that it was--she was anxious that she should go -to some one who loved her and would make her happy. - -Bessie Lobb had been a housemaid for a few years with Dr. and Mrs. -Carlyon when Geoffrey and Priscilla were babies. She had left to get -married before Loveday was born, but she had been back several times to -Trelint to visit her relations, and had always come several times to -see her former master and mistress, and children, and Nurse. - -Every one hailed Nurse’s suggestion with joy, for Porthcallis was only -about fifteen miles from Trelint. The beach was, as Nurse said, very -safe, the air was beautiful; and Bessie was a good, kind, trustworthy -body, and her husband was a nice respectable man, and devoted to -children. - -Mrs. Carlyon wrote to Bessie at once, and very quickly a reply came to -say that Bessie would be proud and pleased to have Miss Loveday. She -had a spare bedroom that Miss Loveday could have, and she would do her -best to make her comfortable and happy. - -“That is capital,” said Mrs. Carylon, greatly relieved that matters -were settling themselves so well. “I will write to Bessie at once, and -say I will bring Loveday on Thursday.” - -“Then I had better set to work at once to sort out my toys and begin to -pack, I suppose,” said Loveday, in a tone of great importance, “or I am -sure I shall never be ready in time.” - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -LOVEDAY GOES VISITING - - -But though she began her packing at once, and went on with it most -industriously for the two following days, yet, when Thursday morning -came, she was not, according to her own accounts, nearly ready. - -There really was a great deal to be done. First of all she had to -find a basket in which to pack her cat, “Mrs. Peters,” and her three -kittens, for until that was done she could not make any other plans or -attend to anything else. - -Fortunately, however, she found at once a nice shiny hat-box, with a -leather handle and a lock and key, which would just hold the Peters -family, for the kittens were quite tiny. “I will pack all my white -flannel petticoats in the bottom of it,” she said to herself, “for they -will be nice for Mrs. Peters and the kittens to lie on, and it will be -a good thing to get the petticoats in out of the way.” - -So in went the petticoats, and then the kittens, but Mrs. Peters was -out, and had to be waited for. She came in, though, in such good time -that she and her family and the petticoats were packed and locked and -strapped up long before Loveday’s dinner-time came; and what would -have been the end of the poor kittens and their mother if their own -dinner-time had not come very soon, and Nurse had not come in search of -them to feed them, no one can imagine, for the box had no ventilation -holes, and the lid shut down quite close. - -If Mrs. Peters and the kittens suffered, though, Loveday suffered too; -for Nurse was so angry when she saw the petticoats in the box with the -cats, that she ordered Loveday to sit down and pick off from them every -single hair that the cats had left behind, and they had left so many -that to Loveday it seemed a marvel that they were not all quite bald. -She did not get rid of quite all the hairs, though, for by tea-time -her eyes were so swelled and smarting with crying, she was excused the -rest, after promising never, never to do such a thing again. - -“Don’t you think, dear, that you had better leave Mrs. Peters and her -family behind?” suggested her mother, when Loveday, after ransacking -the whole house, had found a basket to take the place of the hat-box. - -“Oh no!” cried Loveday; “Mrs. Peters would fret dreadfully for me.” - -“Do you think she would, dear, now she has her little ones to interest -her?” - -“Oh yes, I am sure she would. You see she would have no one to talk to -her.” - -“I would talk to her,” said mother, “and make much of her,” and looking -rather grave, “you see there is a great deal of water at Porthcallis, -and the kittens are so very young. If they escaped from you or their -mother, and got down on the sands and a wave came in, and----” - -“Can kittens swim?” asked Loveday, looking very anxious. - -“No, dear; such baby things, too, would be too frightened to do -anything. I really think it would be kinder to leave them at home with -Nurse and me, and Priscilla would be glad, too, to have them to watch -and play with when she gets better. She will be rather lonely and dull -without you, you know.” - -“So she will,” sighed Loveday, “but of course I shall come home at once -if Prissy wants me.” - -“You must breathe in all the sea air you can, and grow strong and rosy, -and you must collect all the pretty shells you can find, for Priscilla, -and then, perhaps--but remember it is only _perhaps_--when Priscilla -and Geoffrey are well enough we may all come down to Porthcallis for a -holiday with you.” - -“Oh, how lovely!” cried Loveday, dancing and clapping her hands with -joy. “I shall like going ever so much better now than I did.” She went -over and leaned on her mother, and looked up into her face. “I--I -didn’t want to go before you said that,” she confided to her in a half -whisper, “at least not very much; but I do now, and I will get all the -shells I can for Prissy, and I will get to know my way everywhere so -as to be able to lead you all about when you come. And now,” bustling -away, “I am going to take out all my toys to see which of them I shall -pack;” and off she ran. In a moment or two, though, she was back again. - -“Mother, don’t you think I ought to take one of my toys, or one of -Prissy’s, to Aaron Lobb? I don’t expect he has very many, and little -boys and girls always like to have something brought to them when -people come on a visit.” - -“Yes, certainly, dear. Take one of your own--something you think a boy -would like.” - -Loveday thought for a moment. “I fink I’ll take him the big monkey. It -is very ugly, but boys like ugly things;” and off she ran again, and -this time really reached the nursery, where Mrs. Peters and her family -were frantically clawing at the basket in their longing to get outside -it. - -Loveday untied the lid and let them all out. “You are not to go after -all,” she said. “I hope you won’t be dis’pointed, but mother finks -Prissy may want you, and, after all, the fish at Porthcallis isn’t -better than any other, and there’s a _dreadful_ lot of water.” - -Whether Mrs. Peters understood the change of plan or not, who can say? -But it is a fact that she lay down purring with happiness, and, drawing -all her children about her, talked to them for a long time. - -Three days later, about noon, Loveday and Mrs. Carlyon started. It -was not a very long journey by train--an engine soon covers fifteen -miles; and the afternoon sun was still shining bright and hot when -they stepped out on the platform of the little bare country station, -which was not very far from Mrs. Lobb’s cottage. Though one could not -actually see the sea from the platform, one felt that it was close by, -for one could smell it in the air, and on stormy days one could hear -it; and, though I don’t know how it came there, there certainly was -sea-sand all about the platform, which made it look and feel as though -the sea certainly must reach that far sometimes. - -It was all very open and breezy, and there seemed to be an endless -amount of air and space, and sea and sand, and sky and everything. -Loveday almost wished there was not quite so much; it made her feel so -small, and rather forlorn. But she had not much time to think about -it, for things kept on happening. There were no omnibuses or cabs or -anything to take them anywhere. - -“How are we going to get my box to Bessie’s house?” she asked anxiously. - -A man with a wheelbarrow had come up, and was standing by them. - -“I’ll take the box, little lady,” he said, touching his hat and smiling -at her. “For the rest, hereabouts, we mostly goes on Shanks’s mare.” - -“Oh, thank you,” said Loveday. - -Mrs. Carlyon explained to the man where she wanted him to take the box, -and paid him; and when he had gone, and she had gathered up the little -things she wished to carry herself, she and Loveday started to follow. -Outside the station, Loveday stopped and looked about her. - -“Come along, darling,” said mother rather impatiently. “What are you -looking for? This is the way. I want to go to one or two shops first.” - -“I was looking for Shanks and his mare,” she explained, “to take us to -Bessie’s.” - -[Illustration: “‘I’LL TAKE THOMAS,’ SHE SAID.”] - -“I don’t think the station-master need have laughed like that,” she -said indignantly, as, a moment later, they walked quickly away. -“Everybody makes mistakes, and we don’t call legs by such silly names -at home, and--and one _can’t_ know _everything_. Even grown-ups don’t -know everything, but they do laugh at such silly things. _I_ don’t see -anything funny in it.” - -“No, I don’t suppose you do, dear. But look! here is a fine shop,” said -Mrs. Carlyon, drawing up before a window full of toys, and china, and -a few books, and some boxes of chocolates, and a long string of tin -buckets all painted different colours. “We will go in, shall we? I want -to get you a spade and bucket.” - -“Oh, thank you!” gasped Loveday. “How lovely!” and she forgot in a -moment all her troubles and the trying habit grown-ups have of laughing -at nothing. - -Some of the buckets had names painted on their sides. - -“Have you one with ‘Loveday’ on it?” she asked eagerly of the woman who -came out to serve them. - -“Oh no, miss,” said the woman, shaking her head. “I never heard of no -such name as that before. I’ve got one with ‘Thomas’ on it, and ‘Ada,’ -and ‘Susan.’” - -Loveday hesitated a moment; then, “I’ll take ‘Thomas,’” she said. “You -see,” she explained to her mother when they got outside, “if I had -chosen ‘Ada’ or ‘Susan,’ people would have thought it was my own real -name, but they can’t think I am called ‘Thomas.’” - -“I don’t suppose people have much time for thinking about little girls -and the names on their buckets,” said Mrs. Carlyon quietly. - -“No, not people, mummy, but boys and girls have. They have lots of -time, and they notice everything.” - -Armed with her spade and her scarlet bucket, Loveday walked on quite -cheerfully to Bessie’s house. From the station it had looked quite -close, only just across a green, and along a strip of level road and -a little bit of beach, and there you were. But the country just there -was flat and deceptive; the road wound and curved, and they found it -quite a longish walk by the time they had passed the green and followed -the windings of the road, and crossed the stretch of sands. But there -they were at last, and there was Bessie out to welcome them, and Aaron, -too, though he disappeared behind his mother’s skirts as soon as the -strangers came really close. - -Loveday thought him a very funny little boy, and not at all pretty. -He had very round red cheeks, and a snub nose, and big dark eyes; his -hair was dark, too, and quite straight, and cut very close to his head. -Loveday looked at him with the greatest interest and curiosity. He was -very different from what she had expected; for one thing, he was older -and more manly. - -“He is like a boy, not a baby,” she said to herself, and felt a little -disappointed. - -She had thought she was to have had a play-fellow whom she could have -“mothered” and managed a little. But she soon found out her mistake. -Aaron Lobb was not at all a baby, nor did he think himself one or allow -others to do so. He was a sturdy little fellow, and full of a knowledge -of the sea and the tides, and boats, and shells, and fishing, which to -Loveday seemed simply amazing, and clever beyond words. - -When they had all talked a little, Bessie led the way into the house, -and Loveday thought it was the most interesting, funny, and charming -house she had ever seen in her life. It stood back from the beach, -close under the towering cliff, and was a long low house, only one -storey high, with big windows, and a porch over the door, and a -verandah on each side of the door, and it was painted white, all but -the window-frames and the doors, and they were green. - -Bessie explained that it had been built by a gentleman who lived in a -big house on the top of the cliff. He had had it built years ago for -his boatman to live in, “and there is the path he had made for the man -to go up and down by to the big house.” - -Loveday looked, and saw a dear little winding path going up and up, -with here and there a flight of little steps where the cliff was -particularly steep, and all the way there was a strong hand-rail to -prevent one’s falling over. - -“Does your husband take charge of the boats for the gentleman now?” -asked Mrs. Carlyon. - -“Oh no, ma’am,” said Bessie, shaking her head and looking very grave. -“He doesn’t keep one now, poor gentleman! His only son was drowned one -day out there, right in front of his windows, and Mr. Winter--he--he -saw it, and--and it pretty nearly drove him out of his mind. The next -day he sent down to Button--Button was his man--and ordered every boat -to be broke up, and he got rid of Button--not ’cause ’twas his fault, -but ’cause he couldn’t abide the sight of anything that had to do with -that dreadful day. He was going to have this little place pulled down -too, but my husband begged and prayed him not to, houses here being so -scarce there’s no getting one. And Mr. Winter, he gave in. You see, -ma’am, he’d had the little place built low like this, and right back -under the cliff, so’s it shouldn’t be seen from the house, so he was -never worried by the sight of it, and after the accident he wouldn’t be -likely to, for he had the blinds on that side of the house that faced -the sea drawn down, and he dared anybody ever to raise them again in -his lifetime.” - -Loveday was very much impressed by this sad story. She seemed to see -the poor father sitting lonely and sad in his dark house, while his -only son lay for ever at the bottom of the cruel sea, which stretched -before his very eyes. There were tears in Mrs. Carlyon’s eyes as -she listened, and quite a sadness lay for the moment over the whole -scene as they followed Bessie into the bungalow. It was quite a large -bungalow, and so well built and nicely finished inside. On one side -of the little entrance was a cosy, spotlessly clean kitchen-parlour, -with scullery behind it, and beyond that was Bessie’s bedroom; both had -windows looking out to sea, and Bessie’s room had a little door at the -end, by which she could get in and out without having to go through -the kitchen. On the other side of the entrance was a nice little room, -which had been built, said Bessie, for the young gentleman and his -friends to have a meal in, or sit in, and behind it were two little -rooms which had been built for dressing-rooms or bedrooms, for him to -change in if he came home wet, or to sleep in if he was going to start -very early on a fishing expedition, or come home late. - -The front room, which looked out to sea, Bessie had made her parlour, -while the others were two dear little bedrooms, one of which was now -Aaron’s, while the other was to be Loveday’s. - -Loveday’s eyes sparkled when she saw hers. It had a wooden bed in -it--such a curious-looking one, for it had been a four-poster, but, -as it wouldn’t go into any room in the bungalow, they had had to cut -the top off, so that now it seemed to have two sets of legs, the -four it stood on and four that stood up in the air. The window was -hung with curtains of blossom-white muslin, and the looking-glass -and dressing-table and bed were all hung with the same. So snowy and -soft and billowy it looked, the little room might almost have been -filled with white clouds or foam. The woodwork was painted white, and -the walls were white too, but for a frieze around the top, whereon -white-sailed ships scudded along over a glorious blue-green sea, while -gulls hovered and swooped, or stood stiffly on the bright green grass -on the cliff-top. - -Loveday was enchanted. “Oh, I wish Prissy could see it too!” she cried, -and that was the only flaw in her great delight. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -PISKIES STILL LIVE AT PORTHCALLIS - - -Presently though, just for a time another shadow fell, for it seemed -only a very, very little while before it was time for her mother to -leave. - -“I _wish_ you could stay all the time, mother,” she whispered eagerly. -“Couldn’t you, mother? It would do you good too.” - -“But, darling, think of poor Priscilla. She will be wanting me, and I -know you wouldn’t like to keep me away from her.” - -Loveday was not quite sure of that at the moment, but she would not -have said so; and when she thought of pale, suffering Prissy, she tried -hard to choke down any selfish feeling, and to be very brave. “But--you -will come again soon, won’t you, mother?” - -“Yes, darling, very soon; and I expect father will run down to see you -in a very little while, and we will always let you know if any of us -are coming, so that you can come to meet us. Now, are you going to see -me off at the station, or will you stay here and wave your handkerchief -to me?” - -“Oh, please, I’ll go to the station.” - -They all had tea on the beach outside the cottage, and when that was -done it was almost time for Mrs. Carlyon to start on her homeward -journey. Bessie was to go to the station too, and take Aaron with her; -and Mrs. Carlyon felt pretty sure that by the time Loveday had had the -double walk, she would be too tired to fret much, or feel lonely, or to -do anything but go to bed and sleep. - -She was a very brave little woman, on the whole, considering that she -was alone in a strange place, and with people who were almost strangers -to her. A few tears did force themselves through her lids, but she did -not say anything. - -“When you get back, darling, you must help Bessie to unpack your box, -and you will be able to give Aaron his monkey, then you will be ready -for bed, and when you wake up again it will be morning, and you will -feel so happy, and there will be so much to see and do, that you will -scarcely know what to see and do first. But don’t forget to collect a -nice lot of shells for Priscilla.” - -Then the engine gave two or three snorts and puffs, and a loud -whistle--away moved the train, and Loveday found herself left alone. - -She might have shed a few tears more when the train puffed away--in -fact, it is pretty certain that she would have if she had not, at that -moment, caught sight of the station-master, and remembered his rude -laughter about Shanks’s mare. He had not caught sight of her yet, and -Loveday was anxious to hurry away before he did, and in her eagerness -and hurry she quite forgot about her tears and her loneliness; and -then it was such fun to watch the ducks and geese on the green, and to -make them run at one, and stretch their necks and scream, that she -was soon laughing instead of crying; and when they got back there was -a boat drawn up on the beach, and that was very exciting, for Mr. Lobb -had come back with a big catch of crabs and lobsters, and Loveday, -after being introduced to him, was for quite a long while perfectly -fascinated, watching the creatures trying to get out of the great -lumbering crab-pots which he had brought them home in. - -“I wish now, missie, as yer ma hadn’t a-been gone, for she could have -took home two or three of these, and welcome to ’em.” - -“Oh, I wish she hadn’t,” said Loveday earnestly. “Father loves lobsters -and crabs; he would have been so glad--so would Geoffrey.” - -“Well, look here now,” said John Lobb good-naturedly. “Bessie’ll bile -these presently, and then if she’ll pop one or two into a basket, I’ll -take them up and post ’em, and your pa’ll have ’em in time for his -breakfast in the morning.” - -At which Loveday was full of gratitude, and thanked her new host very -heartily and prettily. - -So Bessie hurried in to attend to her fire, and as a cold wind was -blowing in from the sea, she bade the children follow her. - -[Illustration: “A BIG CATCH OF CRABS AND LOBSTERS.”] - -“Now I’ll unpack my box,” thought Loveday, and, Bessie having -unstrapped and unlocked it for her, she began. There was a little white -chest of drawers in the room, and a big cupboard built into the wall, -so that she had plenty of room for her belongings. Her little frocks, -though she had quite a lot of them, took up a very small space indeed, -but two of her sun-hats covered one shelf of the cupboard, and -she had to take another shelf for her best one and her red and blue -_bérets_. Her boots and shoes she arranged very neatly at the bottom -of the cupboard--at least Aaron did for her, for by this time he had -followed her in, and had grown quite friendly, and he worked really -busily until Loveday took out a big monkey and presented it to him, -after which he did nothing but gaze at it and hug it with delight, and -Loveday, who had been a little shy of offering it to him when she saw -how big a boy he was, felt greatly relieved on seeing his pleasure. - -“After all,” she said to herself, “he isn’t such a very big boy--he is -_rather_ a baby, and I am very glad.” - -Then Bessie came to call them to supper, and soon after that Loveday, -holding tight to her elephant, was sound asleep in her snow-white room; -and Aaron, still hugging his monkey, was snoring contentedly under his -gay patchwork quilt. - -“A rare lot of wild beasts we’ve a-got in our little bit of a place -to-night,” said John Lobb, with a hearty laugh. “’Tis lucky they -b’ain’t given to bellowing, or we should be given notice to quit, I -reckon!” - -When Loveday awoke the next morning, the first thing she noticed was -the curious dull roar of the sea. Then she opened her eyes and looked -about her. The next moment she was out of bed, drawing back her white -curtains to look out at the new, wonderful world without. There was -little to see, though, from her window, for the cliff rose sheer up, -and between the house and the cliff there was only a little bit of -fenced-in ground. It was too close under the shadow of the cold rock -for anything to grow in it, and the house, though it kept off the wind -and the salt spray, also kept off the sun. To make up for this, John -Lobb had a piece of garden ground at the top of the cliff, where he -worked when he wasn’t out fishing. - -But when Loveday looked out he was in the yard at the back, examining -the nets that were spread on the palings to dry. A moment later, Aaron, -still clasping his monkey, ran out and joined his father. - -“Oh, Aaron is dressed!” thought Loveday. “I ought to be. Why didn’t -Bessie call me?” - -She put her head out of her bedroom door, and called: - -“Bessie! Bessie! Please can I have my bath! I am sorry I am so late,” -she added, as Bessie appeared with the bath and the water. - -“It isn’t late, Miss Loveday,” said Bessie smilingly. “It has only this -minute gone seven by my old clock, and that’s always galloping.” - -“Only seven!” cried Loveday. “What are you all up so early for? Is -anybody going away?” - -“’Tisn’t early for us, miss. My husband is going out all day fishing, -and he’s got to catch the tide.” - -“There is always something that has got to be caught,” sighed -Loveday--“the train, or the tide, or the fish, or the post. But I’m -very glad I am up so early, now I am up. I want to go out and see what -things are like in the morning. They generally look different then, -don’t they?” - -“Oh dear,” she said quite apologetically, when presently she came to -the breakfast-table, “I am afraid I am _very_ hungry. I hope you won’t -be frightened when you see what a lot I eat.” - -She really felt quite ashamed of her big appetite, but John and Bessie -only laughed, and John said: - -“That’s good hearing, missie. Nothing you can do in that way’ll -frighten us, seeing as we’m ’customed to Aaron and me.” - -John sat at the head of the table, nearest the fireplace, while Bessie -sat outside, where she could easily reach the kettle or the teapot on -the stove. Loveday’s chair was placed at the end, facing John, while -the table was pulled out a little way for Aaron to sit in the window -amongst the geraniums and cinerarias. In her heart Loveday wished that -she could sit in there, but at the same time she was rather pleased -with her own position; it seemed older and more dignified. - -After breakfast there came the excitement of seeing off the boat, and -then, when that was done, Loveday felt that she really could settle -down for a moment and have time to look about her. Aaron was very -anxious to see her toys and all the other treasures she had brought -with her, for this was a much greater novelty to him than picking up -shells or hunting for crabs, besides which Bessie would not let them -go alone clambering over the rocks, or paddling in the pools, and she -could not go with them for a little while, as she had her house to set -straight and the dinner to get. - -So they sat on the sands within sight of Bessie, and played with a -grocer’s shop that Loveday had brought, and a box of cubes, and a -popgun, and a monkey and an elephant, and sundry other things, but -to her surprise none of the things pleased Aaron so much as did the -books. He turned the pages of her fairy-tales over and over, and gazed -at the pictures, and asked questions about them, until at last Loveday -grew quite tired of answering him. - -“Haven’t you got any books?” she asked at last rather impatiently, -for she would have been much better pleased to have had his help in -building sand-castles. - -“No, I have never had a book in all my life,” he said wistfully. “I -didn’t know there was any with picshers in them like these here.” - -“Didn’t you?” cried Loveday, scarcely able to believe him. “I wish I’d -known it; I’d have brought you one of mine.” - -“But I knows some stories,” he said proudly--“lots! All ’bout piskies, -and fairies, and giants, and buccas, and----” - -“What are buccas?” interrupted Loveday eagerly. - -“Why--why, little people, of course,” said Aaron. - -Loveday looked at him to see if he was “telling true” or laughing at -her, but Aaron was quite serious. - -“Are you telling truth or making up?” she asked. - -It was a question she was often obliged to put to Geoffrey and -Priscilla when they told her things. - -“True, honour bright,” said Aaron earnestly, just a little indignant. -“Don’t you ever read about buccas in your books?” - -Loveday shook her head. - -“Are they fairies?” she asked. - -“Yes.” - -“Good ones or bad?” - -“Good, I b’lieve,” said Aaron. “I never heard of their doing anybody -any harm.” - -“Have you ever seen one?” asked Loveday, in a lowered voice. - -“No,” said Aaron; “they lives in caves and wells, mostly--so father -says--and they’m always digging. You ask father to tell ’ee about them.” - -“No, you tell me. I want to hear about them now. Go on.” - -“Well, if I tell you one story, you must tell me one.” - -“All right,” said Loveday; “go on. It must be about buccas, ’cause I -never heard about them before, and--and I don’t think there are any.” - -“Aw, hush! Don’t ’ee say such things!” cried Aaron, quite scared. -“You’d be sorry if you was to get Barker’s knee, and you will most -likely, if you say things like that. They do all sorts of things to -folks that ’fend them.” - -Loveday felt rather frightened, but she would not let Aaron know it if -she could help it. - -“I thought you said they were good fairies,” she said half irritably. - -“So they are, but fairies never likes folks to say they don’t believe -in ’em. That was how Barker got his bad knee.” - -“Go on--tell,” said Loveday. - -“Well, ’twas like this: Barker, he was a great lazy fellow what -wouldn’t work nor nothing, and he laughed at those that did; and when -his father said to him that the buccas put him to shame, he said there -wasn’t any, and he said he’d prove it: he’d go to the well where folks -said they lived, and where they could hear them working, and he’d -listen, and he’d listen, and if he heard them he’d believe in them, -but not else. So he went to the well every day, and lay down in the -grass close by all day long. And he heard the little buccas as plain as -plain; they was digging and shovelling and laughing and talking all the -time. But Barker, he wouldn’t tell anybody that he’d heard them, and he -went every day and lay down by the well to listen to them, and soon he -got to understand their talk, and how long they worked; and when they -stopped working they hid away their tools, but they always told where -they was going to hide them.” - -“That was silly!” said Loveday. “There’s no sense in doing that.” - -“Hoosh!” said Aaron nervously; “you’d best be careful what you’m -saying. One night Barker heard one little bucca say, ‘I’m going to hide -my pick under the ferns.’ ‘I shan’t,’ says another; ‘I shall leave mine -on Barker’s knee.’” - -“Oh!” gasped Loveday, “then they knew his name. Did they know all the -time that he was there listening to them?” - -“I reckon so,” said Aaron gravely. “Little people knows everything -mostly; that’s why you’ve got to be so careful.” - -“Go on,” said Loveday eagerly. - -“Well, Barker, he was prettily frightened when he heard that, and he -was just going to jump up and run away, when whump! something hit him -right on the knee like anything, and oh!” groaned Aaron, his eyes big -and round with the excitement of his story, “it ’urt him so he bellowed -like a great bull, and he kept on saying, ‘Take ’em away; take them -there tools away; take your old pick and shovel off my knee, I tell -’e!’ But the little buccas only laughed, and the more he bellowed, the -more they laughed. He tried to get up, but ’twas ever so long before he -could, and he had a stiff knee all the rest of his life.” - -“Did people know why?” asked Loveday. - -“Yes, that they did, and everybody was fine and careful after not to -laugh at the buccas, for fear they’d get Barker’s knee too.” - -“I think,” said Loveday, “I like the piskies best--I mean, of course, -I like the buccas too, but I love the piskies ’cause they come and do -nice things to help people, and I love the fairies ’cause they are so -pretty.” - -“There’s a fairy ring up top cliff,” said Aaron, “where they comes and -dances night-times. I’ll show it to you some day.” - -“Oh, do!” cried Loveday. “We’ve got one near home, too, but I’ve never -seen any fairies near it--have you?” - -“No, but I haven’t been out at night, and that’s when they come.” - -“Come along, dears; I am ready now,” said Bessie, appearing at the -door. “Come in and have a glass of milk and some cake, and then we’ll -go and look for crabs and things, shall we?” - -Loveday and Aaron were on their feet in a moment. - -“I must get my bucket and spade if we are going to get crabs and -shells,” said Loveday, and dashed into the house, leaving all her toys -scattered on the sand. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -MISS POTTS COMES TO TEA - - -Loveday had been gone more than a week, Geoffrey was nearly well again, -and Priscilla was on the mend--the dreadful pain in her head had almost -left her, so had her other aches and bruises, but the broken arm -bothered her a good deal, and she was very weak and languid, so that -it was still necessary that she should be kept very quiet and not be -allowed to exert herself. - -She had reached the stage, though, when it becomes tiresome to keep -still; when one wants to do things, yet feels one can’t; or others -want one to do things, and one feels one cannot possibly do them, and -altogether one is cross and teasy without knowing why. - -To read made her head ache, and it was tiresome to hold up a book with -only one hand, and to have none to turn the pages with; neither could -she very well play with her dolls, or her bricks, or anything with but -one hand. Her mother read to her sometimes, and talked to her; but, -of course, she could not do so all the time, and Priscilla would have -grown tired even if she could. - -“Mother,” she said one day, after every one had tried to think of -something to amuse her, “I know what I would like very, very much -indeed!” - -“Well, dear, tell me what it is?” - -“I would like to ask Miss Potts to come and see me. I like her _so_ -much, and I think she must miss me, because I often went in to talk to -her to cheer her up after I knew she was an ‘only’!” - -“Very well, darling; I am going out presently, and I will ask her. I -don’t quite know, though, how she could manage to leave her shop.” - -“I don’t think it would matter much if she did--not if she came while -the children are in school, ’cause there isn’t any one else to go and -buy much--except on Saturdays.” - -“I see. Well, I will go and talk to her about it, and see what she has -to say.” - -Priscilla had always felt drawn to Miss Potts, the quiet, lonely woman -who lived in a world of toys now, yet looked as though she had never -been a child or played with any; and ever since Miss Potts had told her -she was alone in the world, Priscilla had had quite a motherly feeling -for her. She felt quite excited and pleased at the prospect of her -visitor. - -She was so pleased, that she did not know how to wait until her mother -came back with the answer to her message; and then she wished, oh so -much, that she had asked if Miss Potts should be invited to tea with -her. Never mind, she decided, she would ask mother that when she came -back with her news. This thought comforted and soothed her so much that -she was able to lie still more contentedly, and wait, and while she -was waiting, her thoughts flew to Loveday. She tried to picture what -she would be doing at that moment. Loveday was not, of course, able -to write much, for she was very young, and she had only just begun to -write real letters; but Bessie had written a good deal about her and -Aaron, and the fun they had; and mother had told her all she possibly -could about the place, and the house, and the sea, and shops, and the -station and everything else she could think of, and now Priscilla was -looking forward to the time when she and Geoffrey would go down to -Porthcallis and join Loveday. - -She was just picturing to herself the journey down, and Loveday waiting -for them on the platform, when she heard the front door opened and -closed again. - -“Mother must have got back already!” she cried joyfully. “I hope Miss -Potts can come.” - -Then she heard footsteps, and a moment later the door opened, and in -came mother, followed by Miss Potts herself! Priscilla could scarcely -believe her eyes. - -“Here she is!” cried Mrs. Carlyon. “Here is your longed-for visitor. I -would not let her stay even to put on her best bonnet, or her mantle, -or anything.” - -“No; oh dear, no! I don’t know what a sight I am looking, I am sure!” -said Miss Potts nervously. “But your dear ma whisked me off, so I’d no -time to change my frock or do anything but pop on my old second-best -bonnet and shawl. I hope you’ll excuse me----” - -Poor Miss Potts chattered on volubly, not because she really minded -much, but because she was shy and nervous, and sometimes shy and -nervous people feel that they must keep on saying something. - -Priscilla put out her hand to clasp Miss Potts’s hand, and then put up -her face to be kissed. The tears came into Miss Potts’s faded, tired -eyes as she stooped and kissed her. - -“I think you are looking--oh, ever so nice!” said Priscilla warmly. “I -like you in that bonnet better than any. I think it suits you better.” - -“Do you really now, missie?” said Miss Potts, evidently relieved and -pleased. “And how are you, dearie? Are you better?” - -“Oh yes, thank you,” said Priscilla--“ever so much! I think I shall be -quite well soon, and then we are going to Porthcallis.” - -“Dear, dear,” cried Miss Potts, “that will be nice. Nobody could help -getting well down there in the sunshine and sea-breezes.” - -“Do you like the sea?” asked Priscilla. “Did you ever stay by it when -you were a little girl?” - -“Indeed, I did,” said Miss Potts. “I was born by it, and grew up by it -till I was turned twenty.” - -“You were born by the sea!” cried Priscilla. “Oh, how lovely--and I -never knew it!” - -Miss Potts at once became more interesting than ever. Priscilla tried -to picture her digging in the sands and wading through the pools. - -“But how could you bear to come away?” she cried. “I am sure I should -never leave the sea if I could help it!” - -“Ah, my dear, it all depends!” said Miss Potts, with a sad shake of the -head. “I haven’t set eyes on the sea since I left it, and I--I hope I -never do again. I couldn’t bear it, even now.” - -“Oh, how sad!” said Priscilla, looking at her with wide eyes full of -sympathetic interest. “Did your little brothers and sisters live there -too?” she asked gently. - -“Yes, missie, and died there,” said Miss Potts sadly. “Every one of us -but mother and me; that’s why I’ve never looked on it since. To me it -is like a great, sly, deceitful monster, always sighing and moaning for -somebody, or foaming and storming in rage. We came away, mother and me, -after the last was drowned; we couldn’t bear it any longer.” - -“Poor Miss Potts!” said little Priscilla, laying her hand on Miss -Potts’s worn ones, moving so restlessly in her lap. - -Mrs. Carlyon had gone away and left them together, and Miss Potts had -dropped into a chair close to Priscilla’s sofa. - -“You don’t think the sea will roar for Loveday, and swallow her up, do -you?” asked Priscilla, in a very anxious voice. - -“Oh no, my dear; Porthcallis is a very safe place!” said Miss Potts -emphatically. “P’r’aps I shouldn’t have told you anything about--about -my experience. But where we lived it was very wild and rocky, and my -folk were all seafaring; ’twas their work to go to sea. Out of all my -family that lies in the burying-ground, only two of them are men; all -the rest of our men-folk lies at the bottom of the sea.” - -“But you had sisters, hadn’t you, Miss Potts?” - -“Yes, dear, two; but the sea had them as well. One of them, Annie--she -was the youngest--was out shrimping by herself one day, when the tide -caught her and carried her out. Hettie saw her, and ran into the sea -to save her, but----” - -“Yes?” whispered Priscilla softly, her eyes full of tears. “Couldn’t -she reach her?” - -“Yes, she reached her. Father, coming home that night from the fishing, -found them clasped together, and brought them home,” said poor Miss -Potts. “I never saw a smile on his face from that day till just a year -later, when the sea claimed him too.” - -“Oh, how dreadful! I shall never like the sea again,” said Priscilla, -wiping away her tears. “I don’t wonder you came away. Did you come -straight to Trelint?” - -“Yes,” said Miss Potts more cheerfully; “and I felt at home here at -once. I shouldn’t care to live anywhere else now.” - -“Neither should I,” said Priscilla. “I love home, and Trelint, and--oh, -everything; and I would rather live here than by the sea, after all.” - -Mrs. Carlyon opened the door, and put her head in. - -“Alma is going to bring you some tea presently,” she said brightly. -“Miss Potts said she could stay and have some with you. I am sorry to -say I have to go out, but I know you will take care of each other. -Good-bye, darling, for the time.” - -Priscilla beamed with pleasure. - -“That is just what I was wanting. I am so glad you can stay, Miss -Potts. I don’t s’pose any one will go to the shop, do you?” - -She did not for a moment mean to be rude or unkind. - -“No, I expect not,” said Miss Potts a little sadly. - -But in a moment or two the door opened again, and in walked Geoffrey. -At sight of Miss Potts he drew up, and stepped back towards the door as -though thunderstruck. - -“Ah!” he cried, in a hollow, melodramatic voice, “here she is! False -woman, I have found you. For ten minutes and more have I been kicking -your door with my noble toes----” - -Miss Potts groaned. - -“And the paint but just dry!” she murmured. - -“But no answer could I get,” went on Geoffrey, “and at last”--lowering -his voice and continuing in a tragic whisper--“at last I dropped -my ha’penny back into my pocket and came away. ‘I must lay it out -elsewhere,’ I moaned. But when I reached Ma Tickell’s shop, Pa Tickell -was behind the door, and in his eye I read that he was going to request -me to say my ‘twelve times’ backwards, and I knew he would not believe -that my illness alone had made me forget it, so I crossed over and -gazed in sadly at Ma Wall’s, but Ma Wall looked at me so scornfully -that I came home; and here I find you gossip, gossip, gossip, and my -ha’penny burning a hole in my pocket all the time. You know, Miss -Potts, it is not the way to do business.” - -“I know,” said Miss Potts, laughing; “but if you can tell me what you -wanted particularly I’ll send it up as soon as I get home.” - -“I couldn’t,” said Geoffrey solemnly; “I must see things before I can -lay out my money to the best advantage.” - -“Well, I promise not to be very long, Master Geoffrey, and then you -shall go back with me, if you will, and choose what you like.” - -“What is this nice little parcel?” asked Geoffrey, touching one that -had been lying on the table ever since Miss Potts came in. - -“Oh,” cried Miss Potts, jumping up with a little scream--“oh, how -foolish of me! Why, that’s something I brought for Miss Priscilla, if -she’ll accept it; and with talking so much, and being so glad to see -her, it had clean gone out of my head;” and she placed the nice-looking -little parcel in Priscilla’s hands. - -“Well,” exclaimed Geoffrey, pretending to be deeply hurt, “I think you -might have thought of my feelings, and waited till I had gone away. I -felt certain it was for me, and now----” - -Poor Miss Potts looked quite troubled, but Priscilla’s joyful cry rang -out before she could speak. - -“Oh, how lovely! Oh, you dear, kind Miss Potts! Look, Geoffrey; we can -both use it. Isn’t it lovely?” and Priscilla held out a box of paints, -just such another as they had bought for Loveday. “And they are _sans -poison_, too.” - -“Good!” cried Geoffrey. “Now I’ll be able to paint for you while you -look on. Miss Potts, you _are_ a dear; you understand a fellow’s -feelings before he understands them himself.” - -Priscilla leaned up to kiss her thanks. - -“I wonder how you always know exactly what people want?” she said -gravely. - -“P’r’aps it’s through my having a pretty good memory,” said Miss -Potts, flushing and smiling with pleasure. “I seem able to remember -what I used to think I’d like when I was little myself.” - -“And then, were you very glad--as glad as I am--when you got what you’d -been thinking about?” asked Priscilla. - -“I never got it, my dear,” said Miss Potts; “’twas all in my thoughts, -and never got beyond. But I had a fine lot of pleasure that way; ’twas -almost as good as having the things themselves, I think.” - -“Oh no, not quite,” said Priscilla, turning to her paint-box again. - -Then Nurse came in with the tea, and laid it on a table close to -Priscilla’s sofa. Miss Potts seemed rather nervous and fluttery at -having tea there with the children, but very pleased; and Nurse smiled -on her, and admired the paint-box, and brought in some especial cakes, -because she remembered Miss Potts liked them, and everything and -everybody was as nice as nice could be. - -It was a beautiful tea that they had--at least, to them it seemed so, -and Miss Potts often afterwards spoke of it, and sat and thought about -it in the long, quiet evenings she spent alone in the dark little -parlour behind her shop. They did not hurry over the meal--in fact, -they lingered so long that Mrs. Carlyon returned before they had done, -and presently the carriage drove up, bringing back Dr. Carlyon from his -afternoon rounds. - -When Mrs. Carlyon stooped over her little daughter to kiss her, Prissy -put her one arm round her mother’s neck and drew her face down close. -She knew it was not polite to whisper in company, but she wanted -_very_ much to ask a very, very important question, and she would have -no other opportunity; and as Miss Potts was talking to Geoffrey, and -Nurse was rattling the tea-things, she thought no one would notice that -she was doing more than return her mother’s kiss. - -Mrs. Carlyon quickly heard the whispered request, and, going out of the -room under the pretence of removing her hat, soon returned with a thin, -large envelope, which she slipped under Priscilla’s sofa-pillow. Then -Miss Potts got up to go. - -“I hope you’ll excuse me, Mrs. Carlyon, for staying so long. I didn’t -mean to be more than a minute, and I’ve been the best part of two -hours.” - -She went over to Priscilla to say “Good-bye.” It was quite an ordeal to -her to make her farewells and leave the room under the eyes of so many. -She wanted to express her gratitude, but she was afraid of saying too -much; she was also afraid of saying too little and seeming ungrateful. - -“Good-bye, Miss Priscilla,” she said. “I--I hope you will soon be well -and able to run about again.” - -“Thank you,” said Priscilla politely. She was rather nervous and -excited too, and her eyes were bright and eager. “I shall come to see -you before I go to Porthcallis, and--and here is something I’ve got for -you, but you mustn’t look at it until you get home. It is something -to keep you from feeling quite so lonely when you are in your little -parlour by yourself after the shop is shut.” - -“Thank you, missie, I am sure,” said Miss Potts gratefully. - -And whether she guessed what was in the packet no one ever knew, but -she seemed very pleased and overcome. And when the poor lonely woman -got back, as Priscilla said, to her lonely parlour behind the closed -shop, and, opening the envelope, looked on the three bright faces in -the photograph, her tears really did overflow--tears of pleasure and -gratitude for the beautiful photograph, but most of all for the kind -thought and affection which had prompted the gift. - -“Dear little lady,” she said, gazing affectionately at Priscilla’s -eager, serious face and wondering eyes; “she’s got a heart of gold; -while as for that dear boy, why, I love every hair of his head and -every tone of his voice, and the more he tries to tease me the more I -love him, I think; and as for little Miss Loveday, why, no one could -help loving her if one tried to.” - - - - -CHAPTER X - -THE FAIRY RING - - -Loveday, meanwhile, was having a most interesting and beautiful time, -and she and Aaron had become great friends. They had some little tiffs -and quarrels too, of course, but not very serious ones. - -The most serious perhaps was that when they disagreed about their -names, when Loveday was certainly rather unkind, and Aaron grew angry -and was rude. They were both tired, and very hungry; so hungry that it -seemed as though the dinner hour was delaying on purpose. - -“I don’t know why people think they mustn’t eat till the clock strikes -so many times,” said Loveday crossly; “I think it would be much more -sensible to eat when you are hungry.” - -“You’ve got to know what time dinner is to be, or you wouldn’t know -when to put things on to cook. I should have thought you’d have known -that,” said Aaron; and he spoke in a tone that annoyed Loveday more -than anything--a kind of superior, older tone, as though he were -talking to a baby. - -Loveday did not reply, but sat and looked at Aaron as if in deep -thought; her eyes sparkled wickedly, though. “I do think,” she said at -last, speaking very slowly and distinctly, “that yours is the ugliest -name I ever heard. I can’t think how any one could choose such a name!” - -She was sitting on the sand, her elbow on her knee, her chin in her -hand. Aaron was lying near her, flat on his back. When he heard her he -sat up very straight, his face quite red with anger. Loveday was cool -and calm, and spoke with a deliberate scorn that hurt him more than -anything else she could have done. - -His name was that of his father and grandfather, and he had been rather -proud of it hitherto. - -“I--I think it’s a fine name,” he stammered; “so does everybody but -you; and you can’t say anything, yours is ugly enough--it’s a silly -name too.” - -“Oh, I don’t think so,” said Loveday calmly. “I think it is a very -pretty name, so does everybody; but of course you don’t know, you are -so young.” - -“Yes, I do,” blustered Aaron; “I know as well as anybody, and I call it -ugly, a silly _girl’s_ name,” with great scorn. - -“Well, of course, I shouldn’t be called by a boy’s name,” she retorted -scornfully; “but if I had been a boy, and they’d christened me Aaron, -why, I--I wouldn’t answer to it!” - -“Wouldn’t you!” scoffed Aaron; “you’d have been only too glad to.” - -“There are so many pretty names too,” went on Loveday, ignoring his -last remark, and gazing at him in a musing way. “Douglas, and Gerald, -and Ronald, and----” - -“I’d be ’shamed to be called by any of them, silly things! Just like a -girl’s!” - -“Yes, but they aren’t--they’re for boys; you might just as well say my -name was like a boy’s--it is rather like some.” Then, after looking at -him thoughtfully for a moment, she added slowly, “I think I shall call -you ‘Adolphus,’ Aaron is so ugly.” - -“If you do, I won’t answer,” cried Aaron, springing to his feet, really -angry now; “you ain’t going to call me out of my name. If you do, -I’ll--I’ll call you Jane!” - -Loveday giggled. “I don’t mind a bit!” she said gaily; “I am christened -that already, and my sister is called Priscilla Mary, and you are going -to be called Aaron Adolphus.” - -“I’m not! I shan’t speak to you, and I won’t answer to it,” began -Aaron, when suddenly his mother’s voice called to them across the sands. - -“Come along, children--dinner is ready at last!” - -Loveday sprang at once to her feet. “Come along, Adolphus,” she said -naughtily. If Aaron had but laughed, and taken no notice of her -teasing, Loveday would probably have found no fun in it, and have -stopped very soon, but he was very cross indeed, and sulked over his -dinner, and the afternoon might have been spoilt if Bessie had not been -so good-tempered and kind. - -“We are going to change our names,” said Loveday, beginning her teasing -again as soon as they had begun to eat. - -“Oh!” said Bessie, “and what are you to be called now?” - -“Well, Aaron is to be called Adolphus, only he doesn’t seem to like it, -and I am called Jane, and you--let me see, I’ll call you--” Loveday -thought and thought, but could not think of anything that quite -pleased her. - -“Well, I don’t mind what it is,” said Bessie, “as long as you don’t -call me ‘Bread and Cheese,’ and eat me.” It was an old saying, but -a new one to the children, and they both laughed so much that Aaron -forgot his sulks, and Loveday her teasing. - -“I will call you Mother Dutch Cheese,” laughed Aaron. - -“Then there won’t be much of me left by to-morrow,” said Bessie, -pretending to look frightened. - -“I will call you--” began Loveday, speaking very slowly, for she was -trying all the time to think of something very funny to say. - -“I wonder,” said Bessie, “if, instead of thinking what you shall call -me, you would like to pay a call for me this afternoon?” - -The children looked at her, not quite understanding. Bessie explained: - -“I want Aaron to go up to Mr. Winter’s with a message, and I thought -you would like to go too, Miss Loveday.” - -“I’d love to!” cried Loveday, who had been longing ever since she came -to Porthcallis to go up the cliff-path to the very top, mounting the -little steps, and holding on by the little rail. “When shall we go? -Now?” - -“Finish your dinner first, and sit still for a bit; then I will tidy -you both, for Mr. Winter’s housekeeper, Mrs. Tucker, is a very noticing -body.” - -After the meal was over, and Aaron had said grace, and they had with -great difficulty kept quiet for a little while, Bessie began to tidy -them. Aaron, beyond having a good wash and his hair brushed, had only a -clean holland tunic put on, but Loveday was anxious to make more of a -toilette. - -“Don’t you think,” she said, “that I had better put on this?” dragging -out from the drawer a pretty little frock of white silk muslin with -blue harebells all over it. - -“Oh no,” said Bessie; “one of your little cotton over-alls will be much -the best.” - -Loveday looked disappointed and doubtful; in her heart she felt sure -that Bessie did not know what was correct. - -“But if Mr. Winter was to see me----” - -“Oh dear, you needn’t trouble about Mr. Winter; he keeps well out of -the way if there is anybody about; but if he did happen to see you, he -wouldn’t know whether you’d got on silk or cotton, or blue or yellow.” - -“I think he’d notice my white silk sash with the roses on it.” - -“Well, I don’t, missie. But if he did, he’d only think it was very -unsuitable for going up and down cliff-paths; and so it is, too. If you -were to slip, why, you’d most likely ruin it for ever. Now be a good -little girl, and if you want to please Mr. Winter or Mrs. Tucker with -your looks, you’ll go in your nice clean print over-all and sun-hat. -You shall wear a white belt about your waist, for fear you might trip -on your loose frock going up that steep path.” - -Loveday was not satisfied, but she was so pleased and excited at the -thought of going to the big, mysterious house where the blinds were -always drawn, and the master was never seen, that she had no room -for any other feeling, and they started off in great good humour. - -[Illustration: “‘DON’T LET US LOOK ANY MORE.’”] - -Aaron was so afraid that Loveday would remember and call him Adolphus -again, that he did all he could to keep her mind off it, and talked -incessantly, telling her such wonderful tales. - -“If Mrs. Tucker doesn’t keep us too long,” said Aaron, “I’ll show -you the Fairy Ring, where they come and dance every night at twelve -o’clock. It is right on top of the cliff, and not far from Mr. -Winter’s.” - -“That will be lovely!” cried Loveday delightedly. “Let’s sit down for a -minute; I’m tired.” - -So they sat down on one of the little steps, and looked down and around -and all about them. Already the cottage seemed ever so far off, and so -tiny. - -“It looks as if there could be only one little room in it, doesn’t it?” -said Loveday. “And oh, how far away the sea looks, and that little -boat! Why, it is quite a little teeny-tiny thing. Oh, don’t let’s look -any more; it makes my head go round so.” - -“I’ll sit outside,” said Aaron; “it won’t seem so bad then.” - -They changed places, but even then Loveday did not like it. - -“Let’s go on,” she said, “up where we can’t see any of it.” - -So on they went, and at last reached the green grassy top, and a bit of -road which led to the gate of Mr. Winter’s house. - -Though Loveday had heard about the closed house and the drawn blinds, -it still gave her quite a shock when she saw it. There was such a -look of desolation, and sadness, and neglect about the whole place. -On the side facing the sea, the flower-beds were overgrown with weeds -and flowers which straggled about in a wild tangle, clinging together -and choking each other; the drawn blinds were faded, the frames of the -fast-shut windows were cracked, and badly in want of some coats of -paint. A rose-bush, that at one time must have almost covered the front -of the house, had fallen, perhaps during the storms of the past winter, -and as it fell so it lay, twisted and broken, and choking the wretched -plants which were beneath it. - -Loveday felt quite saddened by the sight of it all, and the story of -the poor drowned boy and his heart-broken father became terribly real -to her--so real that she longed to be able to do something to comfort -the poor man. “If only he would open his blinds and windows, and have -his garden tidied up, I’m sure he wouldn’t feel so miserable. I think I -should cry all day long if I lived here,” she whispered. - -The situation of the house itself seemed almost too lonely to be borne. -There was no other dwelling-place, or sign of human being, within -sight, only a wide, wide space of bare brown fields on two sides; the -grassy cliff-tops with the sea in the distance on the third; and on the -fourth nothing but the heaving, calling sea; while the wind, always -blowing there, swept along unchecked, winter or summer, storm or calm, -keeping up an incessant wailing around the house; and the wail of the -wind and the call of the gulls alone broke the silence. - -It was not to be wondered at that a feeling of awe fell on whomsoever -entered that gate. It fell on both the children now, and they walked -up softly, almost stealthily, for the sound of their footsteps on the -white pebbles seemed to jar in that sad silence. Aaron led the way, and -Loveday followed, holding fast to his tunic. She was glad now that she -had not worn her smart frock or sash; for even she, young as she was, -felt that they would have been out of place there and then. - -Aaron led the way to what was presumably the front door, but a door -so bare of paint, so neglected looking, that Loveday thought it could -never be used. The stones of the steps were green, and the weeds grew -up between them. But in answer to Aaron’s knock the door was quickly -opened by Mrs. Tucker, the housekeeper. She looked keenly at Loveday, -but she did not say anything, and when she had taken the note Aaron had -brought, and heard his message, she went in and closed the door again -quite sharply. But in the moment or so it had been open Loveday had had -time to catch a glimpse of a big stone hall, and a grandfather’s clock, -which ticked with the hollow note clocks in empty houses usually have. - -Mrs. Tucker looked so glum and unsmiling that the children were quite -glad to get away from her, and they hurried out of the garden much more -quickly than they entered it. - -Once outside, Aaron seemed to lose his awe, and his spirits returned, -but Loveday did not so soon recover. She felt she wanted to do -something for Mr. Winter to make him feel less sad and uncomfortable, -yet she felt quite helpless, especially since she had seen Mrs. Tucker. -If one had to get past her before one could see him, it really seemed -as though it never could be done. - -“Now then for the Fairy Ring,” said Aaron, as soon as they got outside. - -In their relief at getting away from that grim place, they both took to -their heels and ran over a great stretch of short grass, burnt brown -and slippery by the hot sun, until they came to a large level space on -almost the edge of the cliff, and there on the brown coarse turf stood -out a large ring of grass, so lush and rich and green that there must -surely have been some hidden spring which fed it, or the fairies must -indeed have been at work. - -“It keeps green like that ’cause the fairies dance there,” said Aaron, -with pride and awe. - -Loveday jumped carefully over the green ring and stood in the centre. - -“I expect they’d be angry if I stepped on it--wouldn’t they?” she asked. - -They both spoke softly, as though half afraid of disturbing or -offending the “little people.” Aaron jumped over too and joined her, -and both sat down in the middle of the ring and tried to picture the -wonderful scenes that took place there at night. - -“I wonder where they live by day, and which way they come here,” she -asked, looking about her eagerly. - -“I reckon they come every way,” said Aaron. “Some live in the flowers -and things, and some in caves and shells, I believe.” - -“Do you think the piskies come too, and the buccas, and all?” - -Aaron shook his head. - -“I reckon those that have got to work don’t get no time for dancing.” - -“I think I like the piskies the best,” said Loveday thoughtfully; “but, -of course, I love them all!” she added hastily, in a louder voice, for -she did not want to hurt any one’s feelings, and fairies were very -easily offended, she had heard. “Of course, I love them all; but I do -love the piskies very much, ’cause they work and play too; they come -and do people’s work for them and look after them, and then they dance, -and are such jolly little things.” - -“They take care of my daddy,” said Aaron gravely. “Sometimes he’s got -to be out to sea all night, fishing, and it is dark, and the wind -blowing, and the rain coming down like anything.” - -“My daddy has got to be out all night too, very often,” chimed in -Loveday, not to be outdone in importance by Aaron, “and he’s got to -drive all through the thunder and lightning and snow, and sometimes -it is _so_ slippery Betty can’t hardly walk, but daddy’s _got_ to go -’cause somebody is ill.” - -“But he doesn’t have to go on the sea,” said Aaron, “and p’r’aps be -drowned.” - -“He has to drive, and horses tumble down, and run away, and wheels come -off and all sorts of things,” said Loveday, not to be outdone. - -“But there are sharks and whales and--and torpedoes at sea,” went on -Aaron; but Loveday pretended not to hear him; and suddenly it occurred -to him that, if he aggravated her too much, she might begin to call him -“Adolphus” again; so he hurriedly changed the conversation. - -“I wish I could see some piskies at work--don’t you?” said Aaron. - -“Oh yes!” sighed Loveday. “Do you think we could if we stayed up till -twelve o’clock one night?” - -“I don’t know; I never heard of anybody hereabouts seeing them. Perhaps -they don’t come to these parts now.” - -“I don’t think they do, or they would tidy Mr. Winter’s garden for him -and weed his path. It is _very_ untidy, isn’t it? It looks just like a -place no one lives in.” - -Aaron nodded; he had never seen it in any other condition, so was not -so much impressed as was Loveday. - -“I wish I could make it nice for him. I’d like to make it look so -nice--all in one night--that when he came out he’d be--oh! ever so -s’prised, and he’d wonder and wonder who had done it, and he’d say: -‘Why, a fairy must have been here at work.’ That’s what father and -mother say sometimes.” - -Aaron looked at her with interest. He liked to hear her stories of her -home, and what she did there. Some of them were very wonderful. But -Loveday had no stories to tell that afternoon; she was very thoughtful -and quiet, and sat for quite a long time without speaking. Aaron began -at last to grow tired of staying still, and was just about to get up, -when she suddenly turned to him, all excitement: - -“I’ve been thinking, and I’ve thought of--oh, _ever_ such a nice plan. -Let’s play that we are piskies, and come up in the night and tidy Mr. -Winter’s garden for him, and make him think it is a fairy that has done -it, and--and then we’d come again, and he’d think the fairies had been -again. Shall we, Aaron? Oh, do say yes; and it will be a secret, and -nobody must ever know, and everybody will wonder--and oh, it will be -simply, simply splendid.” - -Aaron listened eagerly, quite carried away by her enthusiasm. Loveday, -with her ideas, her wild plans, and strange thoughts, was a constant -wonder to him, and where she led he followed--if he could. - -“Won’t all the folks be wondering and talking when it gets about?” he -cried excitedly, “and won’t it be funny to be listening to them, and we -knowing all the time all ’bout it! Oh, it’ll be grand!” - -For quite a long while they sat and discussed their plans delightedly, -and of course there were a great many plans to be made. Aaron it was -who first saw difficulties in the way of carrying them out. - -“But how’re we going to get out in the night?” he cried. “Mother and -father would hear us. ’Twould be dark, too, and if we was to slip and -fall climbing up the cliff, we’d be killed as dead as--as dead as -pilchards.” - -“Pilchards don’t fall down cliffs,” said Loveday scornfully. - -But she was obliged to admit that there were difficulties which would -not be very easy to get over, and they walked about with very anxious, -serious faces and dampened spirits--it did seem bitter to be balked now. - -“I think I know what we can do,” said Loveday at last; “isn’t it light -very early in the morning now?” - -“Yes, it’s full day by four o’clock, and earlier,” said Aaron. - -“Well, we’ll get up then, and we can get out of my window quite easily, -and then we can run up the cliff and be piskies till it’s time to come -home; then we’ll run down and jump into bed, and then, when Bessie -calls us, we’ll be asleep; and we’ll get up, and nobody won’t know -anything. We can do that, can’t we?” - -“Yes,” agreed Aaron, “I reckon we might; but I think we’d best be going -home now--it feels like tea-time, and mother will be wondering where -we’ve got to.” - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -LOVEDAY AND AARON PLAY AT BEING PISKIES - - -Loveday could scarcely sleep at all that night, she was so afraid that -they would not wake up early enough to start. In fact, she was so -afraid of oversleeping that after Bessie had seen her to bed and said -“Good-night,” she slipped out again and put on some of her clothes, -partly that she might be so far dressed when morning came, and partly -that the discomfort of them might prevent her sleeping too soundly. - -Her plan answered well. All night she was constantly turning and -waking, and she was glad enough when daylight came at last. She did -not know what the time was, but she got up, and, tiptoeing out, called -Aaron. It was not very easy to wake him; he had not troubled to -sleep in his clothes, or to do anything else to make him wake early. -Loveday, afraid to shout at him, or to make any noise at all, took the -water-bottle, thinking that a drop or two of water on his face might -answer better than anything, but the water, unfortunately, did not -drop--it poured all down his face and neck in a cold stream, and Aaron -started up with a howl which filled Loveday with dismay and vexation. - -“Oh, you silly, you!” she cried crossly; “do be quiet, and don’t be so -stupid. Don’t you remember what we are going to do?” - -“Yes,” said Aaron, cross enough himself now, “but I want to go to -sleep.” He did not feel at all in the mood for playing at being -a pisky. Loveday, though, was determined, and after a moment the -sleepiness and crossness passed, and he began to feel the excitement of -their plan. - -“Make haste and dress,” said Loveday firmly. “I shan’t be long.” - -And in a remarkably short space of time they had dressed and crept out -of her window, and were scrambling hurriedly up the steep cliff-path. - -“Oh, how lovely!” - -Young as she was, Loveday had to keep on stopping to admire the beauty -of the scene; the sea, and sky, and land, all radiant in the glorious -glow of sunrise, the sparkling heavy sea, the towering cliffs, and over -all the singing of happy birds. More than once they had to pause on -their way and gaze about them. - -“I wish we could always get up as early as this,” sighed Loveday. “I -think I shall, and I’ll try and make Priscilla and Geoffrey get up too; -the other parts of the day are never so pretty. I wish Prissy could see -it now.” - -“I’ve seen it like this scores of times,” said Aaron, in a tone that -implied: “This is nothing to me; I am used to it.” - -“And yet you wanted to stay on in bed and sleep,” flashed Loveday -scornfully. - -But with so much before them to be done, they could not linger long -to gaze, and presently making up their minds not to stop again, they -hurried on as fast as they could, and by the time they reached Mr. -Winter’s gate they were too full of their own daring to have any -thoughts to spare for anything else. - -“I can’t think why people have such horrid noisy stuff put on their -paths,” said Loveday, after they had made several vain attempts to -creep over the loose pebbles without making a sound. She was glancing -up at the windows all the time, for it really seemed to her that their -attempts must have roused every one in the house. - -“What shall we do first?” she whispered to Aaron. “I think the -flower-beds look the worst of all, but if they never draw up the blinds -they won’t see how nice we’ve made them.” - -And if this was not quite the real reason, and if Loveday’s courage did -fail at the thought of setting things right there, who could wonder -when one looked at the state of the place? It was a task which would -have taken two or three men many days of hard work. - -“Shall we begin by weeding the steps and the path before the door?” she -suggested, and, Aaron agreeing, they fell to work busily. - -“Does Mr. Winter ever come out of this door and walk here?” she asked. - -She was very full of curiosity as to Mr. Winter and his doings. - -“Yes,” said Aaron; “he comes out this way to go to that garden over -there, where they grow fruit and vegetables. He takes a brave bit of -interest in that garden.” - -Loveday sat back on her heels, and looked in the direction Aaron was -pointing. - -“He built a high wall all round it, so’s he shouldn’t see the sea and -nobody shouldn’t see him.” - -“I think we’ve done enough here for one day, don’t you?” sighed -Loveday, who detested weeding. - -“That I do,” declared Aaron emphatically. - -“Can’t we do something in that garden now, where Mr. Winter would see -it, and be glad, and wonder who did it?” - -Aaron nodded, and rose stiffly to his feet. “I wish ’twas -breakfast-time,” he sighed. - -Loveday thought the kitchen-garden by far the nicest bit that she had -seen yet of Mr. Winter’s grounds. She felt safer there, too, for she -could not be seen from the house, nor heard, and the place itself did -not seem so hopeless of improvement. There was plenty to be done, or so -they thought, but what they did, did make some show. - -“I think we will tidy away all that straw first of all,” she said; “it -makes that bed look so untidy, and I expect all the slugs and snails go -to sleep in it. We can’t burn it to-day, so we’ll put it in a heap here -for the time, and perhaps to-morrow we’ll bring some matches. If we’re -very early nobody will see the smoke.” - -But Aaron was doubtful of that. - -“Porthcallis folks gets up early,” he said, “and father might see it as -he brought the boat in. The smoke would show for miles round.” - -They found a supply of tools in a shed in the garden, but they were -rather big and heavy, so they gathered up the straw in their arms, and -carried it away, which caused a good deal of running over the bed, and -left many footprints. - -“I think we ought to rake it over before we go,” said Loveday, looking -at it rather anxiously; “nobody would think piskies’ feet had left -marks like that.” - -Aaron agreed, and between them they used the long rake, until the bed -looked really quite nice and tidy. - -“Oh dear,” sighed Loveday, as they put away the tools at last, “I think -piskies must get very tired.” - -“And hungry, too!” sighed Aaron, who felt famished. - -“I am starving,” said Loveday, “but I think it must be nearly -breakfast-time.” - -“It isn’t five yet, I believe,” said Aaron dolefully; “and breakfast -won’t be ready till past seven.” - -“More than two hours to wait!” gasped Loveday; “I can’t, I simply -can’t. Don’t you think we’ve done enough for one day?” she asked, after -a moment’s pause. - -“Don’t I!” said Aaron, in a tone which said plainly that on this matter -he had no doubt. - -Very, very carefully the pair crept out of the kitchen-garden, past the -house, and over the pebbled path. - -“I wish we had made that part look a little nicer,” said Loveday, -glancing with tired, wistful eyes over the desolate bit of ground -around the house, “but I s’pose even piskies couldn’t do it all at -once, could they?” - -“No, not unless there are hundreds of ’em,” said Aaron, “and we’m only -two.” - -The glorious hues were fading fast from the sky now, and the sun shone -with the pale clear light of early morning. The sea still sparkled, -and the birds sang, but the children paid little heed to either; they -were too hungry and tired. The walk home was rather a silent one, and -they got into the house so easily that there was no excitement there -to arouse them. With scarcely a word they quietly separated, slipped -off their things and crept into their beds again, and, fortunately for -them, soon fell asleep and forgot their hunger. - -“Well, I never! What a sleepy-head!” cried Bessie some time later. -“What’s the matter with you both, I wonder? I had to strip the -bed-clothes off Aaron and pull away his pillows before I could rouse -him, and here are you, Miss Loveday, pretty nearly as bad. Come along, -jump up! Here’s your bath, and breakfast will be ready in half-an-hour. -You won’t go to sleep again, will you, dear?” - -“No-o,” said Loveday, in a very, very drowsy voice, “but I--I think -you’d better lift me out, Bessie, or--p’r’aps--I may----” - -And Bessie took her at her word, and lifted her right out of her snug -little bed and stood her on the floor. - -But more than once that day Bessie looked at them both with a puzzled -face. “I don’t know when I’ve seen them look so tired,” she said to -herself. “I s’pose it’s the weather.” And later in the day, when she -went to call them in to tea, and found Loveday curled up on the sand, -sound asleep, her spade and bucket lying beside her--and Aaron fast -asleep too, his book fallen out of his hand--she looked puzzled -again, and rather troubled. “It can’t be anything but the weather, I -should think,” she murmured; “I don’t think they can be sickening for -anything, they ain’t a bit feverish, and their appetites are good.” And -after their nap and their tea they were so bright and lively again, -that Bessie’s fears all vanished, and the weather was, as usual, blamed -unjustly. - -“I wonder,” Loveday whispered many times during the day--“I wonder -what Mr. Winter thought when he saw what we’d done? I wonder if he saw -it, and if he was very, very glad? Do you think he would think about -piskies, and guess that they did it?” - -“I dunno,” said Aaron stolidly. “I reckon he don’t put down nothing for -fairies and such-like; but there isn’t nobody else that could do it.” - -That night they took care to hide some of their supper in their pockets -for the morning. Aaron was not quite so excited about the pisky plan -as he had been, but Loveday was full of it; the thought of what they -had done and of Mr. Winter’s pleasure gave her fresh zeal and energy. -She longed for the next morning to come, that she might look again on -what they had done, and work more wonders. This time she determined -that they really would try to make the garden near the house look -neater; they would not shirk it a second time, but would really begin -to work at it at once, and give all their time and attention to it. -Again she slept in her clothes, and again she called Aaron very early. -This morning, though, there was no glorious sunrise to cheer or delay -them; the dawn was grey and chilly; a wet sea-fog hung over everything, -making it damp and dull. No birds sang to-day. As the children -mounted the cliff, the world below seemed cut off from them, and they -themselves might have been in cloudland. - -“Now it really does seem as though we had walked into the sky,” said -Loveday. “I am glad Priscilla isn’t here; she would be frightened, I -expect, but of course I know all about it.” - -Though they had no sunshine or beauty to gaze at, they had bread to -eat, and that helped to keep up their spirits and their energies. - -“I wonder if real piskies come out in weather like this,” said Loveday, -laughing at the white fringe of mist which outlined Aaron’s stubby head -and blue cap, and her own curls and scarlet _béret_. “We look like -Father Christmas.” - -The damp made the pebbles on the garden path less noisy to walk over, -so that they got up to the house more easily, but before they began -their attack on the most neglected part, they decided that they must -have one peep at their work of yesterday; so they crept into the -kitchen-garden and down to the cleared bed. But, to their amazement and -disgust, there was no cleared bed! They looked and looked, and stared -at each other and back again, but there was no mistake. Some one or -something had spread straw all over it again, and it was just as untidy -as ever! - -“That _must_ be the wicked fairies!” cried Loveday indignantly. “The -nasty, naughty, wicked things! They got here first, and this is what -they have done, just to annoy us and Mr. Winter! It is _too_ bad. I -only hope he saw it yesterday as we left it for him. I think it’s -dreadful of them to annoy a poor man like that, when he’s so sad. I -don’t know how they can behave so!” - -“Aw, it’s just like ’em,” said Aaron gravely. “They don’t care, they’m -that bad.” - -He was looking very solemn and rather nervous; he really did not like -having to do with any place or thing that the wicked fairies had been -near; for if they were vexed they did not care, as he said, what they -did to the person who vexed them. He was for hurrying away to another -part of the garden, and was actually starting, when, to his horror, he -saw Loveday collecting the straw from the bed again. - -“Don’t; you’d better not touch it!” he cried. “If the bad ones put it -there, they’ll pay you out fine for meddling.” - -“I don’t care,” said Loveday. “It’s poor Mr. Winter I’m thinking about, -and I don’t care what they do. I am going to make his garden nice for -him, poor man!” - -And she went to work again in a way that showed that she meant it. - -“Come along, Aaron,” she cried. “You needn’t leave me to do it all. Do -help.” - -Aaron was divided. He did not much like the idea of working by himself -in another part of the garden, and he did not relish the task before -him, but in the end he stood by Loveday very pluckily, and soon they -had once more collected all the straw and raked up the bed as before. - -“I _wish_ I had brought a box of matches,” said Loveday hotly; “then -I’d burn the straw, and they wouldn’t be able to play such a trick -again.” - -“You needn’t burn it,” said Aaron; “we’ll carry it away and heave it -to cliff. If they gets it and brings it back from there--well, they’m -welcome to.” - -Loveday agreed with delight, and both of them chuckled many times over -their cleverness in out-witting the “little people” as they struggled -to pack the straw into two bundles bound round by Loveday’s over-all -and Aaron’s tunic. It was not a very easy task, and the garden and the -path over which they dragged their loads were not quite as neat and -speckless as fairy fingers would have left them. But the pair did not -see that; all their thoughts were bent on “heaving” the straw over -the cliff into the sea. And perhaps it was well for their parents and -those who loved them, that they did not see those two as they leaned -over the edge of the steep cliff-top and shook out their pinafores over -the dizzy heights, then watched the straw as it whirled down and down -to those awful depths below, where the sea dashed and foamed like a -caldron, lashed to anger by the sharp rocks on which it flung itself. -An inch or so farther, the least slip, the merest over-balancing as -they shook out their loads, and they too would have gone whirling down -through the mist, to the jagged rocks, and the hungry waves all those -feet below, and no earthly power could have saved them from a fearful -death. - -[Illustration: “THEY SHOOK OUT THEIR PINAFORES OVER THE DIZZY -HEIGHTS.”] - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -THE PISKIES CAUGHT - - -Both Aaron and Loveday were very tired when, for the third time, they -rose at dawn, crept out of the house, and up the cliff; and if it had -not been for the excitement of seeing what their enemies had done to -the vegetable bed during the night, they would probably have left their -pisky work, for one morning at least. But Loveday was very anxious to -see if the bad piskies had done anything further when they found all -the straw had been taken away from them. Aaron was excited, too, but he -was more sleepy, and they were both just the least bit cross as they -clambered up the slippery path. - -“I’m jolly glad I am not a real pisky,” he said, “to have to do this -every night. I reckon folks would have to do their work theirselves if -’twas left to me.” - -Loveday did not answer. She felt very much the same, but she was not -going to say so. - -They did not sit down this time to enjoy the view, but munched their -crusts as they walked. There was neither a lovely sunrise, nor a dense -sea-fog--it was just an ordinary dull, grey morning; and Loveday no -longer felt that for the future she should always rise with the sun, -and try to make every one else do the same. Every now and then her -thoughts _would_ turn to her snug, comfortable little bed, though she -tried hard to fix them on something else, for she felt that if she -thought of it too much she should turn and run back to it, and creep in -and lay her weary body out at full length between the cosy blankets, -and her sleepy head on the pillow, and sleep, and sleep, and sleep--all -the day through, if she could. - -Everything was quiet as usual when they reached the gate. By this time -they had found out how to walk over the pebbled path without making -much noise. - -“We will try to make that place look very nice to-day,” said Loveday; -“I’ve brought a knife and a pair of scissors with me, and we’ll cut off -all the great big straggly things, and the dead things, and ‘heave ’em -to cliff’ as we did the straw.” - -“That’s one of mother’s best knives,” said Aaron anxiously; “you’d best -not use that. You should have brought the ’taty knife, the little dumpy -one she uses for peeling ’taties.” - -“Well, I can’t go back now to change it,” said Loveday decidedly. “I -_must_ use this one. One knife isn’t very much, and they are meant to -cut things with; we shan’t hurt it--besides, Bessie has got more like -it.” - -“Oh, well, do as you please,” said Aaron crossly; “only there’ll be a -fine row if it’s spoilt. Knives”--with that superior, knowing air of -his which always nettled Loveday--“costs a brave bit of money.” - -“Of course I know that,” she snapped irritably. “I didn’t think they -grew. Well, I’ll use the scissors, and you can use your hands; unless -you brought something yourself to cut with.” - -But by this time they had reached the walled-in garden, and in their -excitement to see if anything had happened they forgot their crossness. -Along the path they ran till they reached the bed, then stood still and -looked at each other with wide eyes. The bed was covered again with -straw--fresh, new straw--and over it and across it in all directions -was fine cord, stretched to pegs which had been stuck firmly in the -ground. - -The two felt quite frightened! Whoever had done it had spared no -trouble in making all secure this time, but had carried out their work -deliberately and beautifully. The children felt perfectly helpless. - -“It is just to _spite_ us,” whispered Loveday furiously. - -But Aaron did not speak; he was really puzzled and alarmed. Thoughts -were working so fast in his brain, too, that he could not catch one -and put it into words. Loveday grew annoyed and half frightened by his -silence. - -“What do you think it is? Who do you think did it? Aaron, speak! Are -you frightened? Do you think it is something that will hurt us?” - -But in answer to all her eager questions, Aaron only said at last: - -“I dunno; I don’t like the looks on it.” - -Loveday was really rather alarmed, but to find Aaron even more so, and -without a word to encourage her, made her very cross again. - -“_I_ don’t like the looks of all that cord,” she said, “and I’m going -to cut it all, just to let them see that _I_ am not afraid of them. -_I_ am not a coward.” - -Poor Aaron! It was a little hard on him, for he really had begun to -feel a horrible dread that it might not, after all, have been piskies’ -mischief that they were undoing, but some real person’s careful work, -and he was just beginning to say so when they heard quick footsteps -coming along the path towards them, and, looking up, saw an elderly, -grey-haired man with a very white and angry face and a pair of eyes -with a look in them which filled Loveday’s little heart with alarm. - -“It’s Mr. Winter!” gasped Aaron. - -That news did not increase Loveday’s alarm; it rather lessened it, -in fact, for, in the first place, she wanted very much to see this -mysterious person, and, in the second place, she had always a feeling -that sad people were never _very_ angry about anything: they were -too gentle, and had so much else to think about. But Mr. Winter soon -undeceived her. - -“Who are you?” he cried hotly, “and what are you doing in my garden, -you young ragamuffins? What are you doing, I say? Is it you who have -been tampering with my beds day after day, and ruining all my seeds?” - -“Please, sir,” began Aaron, stammering and stuttering, and frightened -nearly out of his wits--“please, sir, we didn’t mean no ’arm; we didn’t -know----” - -“What didn’t you know? You knew you had no right in here. You will -know it now, at any rate, for you will just wait here until I get a -policeman; then perhaps you will remember another time.” - -“A policeman!” - -Loveday was filled with horror, and could scarcely believe her ears. -A policeman to be sent for, for her, Miss Loveday Carlyon! Oh, it -couldn’t be true! He couldn’t mean it! It was a mistake. But oh, if -only father were here, or mother, to explain! - -They were far away, though, and Mr. Winter was here, talking more and -more angrily, and saying, “Come with me, come with me, and I’ll see -that you are safe till the police come!” - -“I must explain to him myself,” thought Loveday. “Aaron isn’t any -good”--which was quite true, for all Aaron’s thoughts were taken up -in trying not to cry. He was much too scared to speak. Loveday went a -little nearer the angry old man. - -“Please, Mr. Winter,” she said, but very tremblingly, “we only wanted -to do something kind for you. We weren’t stealing, or doing any harm. -We never touched a flower--we didn’t see one to touch, but we wouldn’t -have if we had.” - -Mr. Winter stopped in his angry words as soon as she began to speak. -Expecting, as he had, to hear the speech of one of the village -children, Loveday’s pretty, refined voice gave him a shock of surprise. -He looked at her more keenly, and with some curiosity. - -“Kind!” he cried; “what do you mean? You wanted to be kind? Why should -you? And why should you come into my garden to play pranks, and then -call them kindnesses? Why are you up and out wandering about the -country at this hour of the morning? Whose children are you?” - -“This is Aaron Lobb; his father and mother live in your cottage under -the cliff; and I am Loveday Carlyon, Dr. Carlyon’s daughter. I’ve come -from Trelint to stay with Bessie for--for my health, and one day Aaron -and I came up here with a message, and your garden looked _so_ untidy, -I wished the piskies would come and make it nice for you. And then we -thought we would pretend to be piskies and get up very, very early, and -make it all nice and tidy----” - -“Excuse me,” snapped the old gentleman, “my garden was not untidy.” - -“Oh, but please it was, dreadfully--I mean it looked so to me,” urged -Loveday, struggling with her sense of truth and her desire to be -polite. “I mean that outside part in front of the windows where the -blinds are all drawn down. That was what we meant to tidy. I thought if -you saw it looking tidy, and flowers growing, you wouldn’t feel so sad. -It was that untidy part that made us think of it.” - -“Yes, sir,” chimed in Aaron nervously; “please, sir, we didn’t never -mean to come in here, but--but the other was so hard, and then we -looked in here, and saw all the straw littered about--it reg’lar’y -covered that bed.” - -“I know it did,” said Mr. Winter. “I had had that bed sown with seeds -of a rare and delicate kind, and covered them most carefully with straw -to protect them, and--and you have destroyed them all by uncovering -them.” - -“Oh, I _am_ sorry!” cried Loveday, drawing nearer to him. “But why -didn’t you put something there to say so? If we had only known, we -would have put on more stuff to keep them warm.” - -“But when you invaded my garden the second time, and saw that the bed -had been covered again with straw, couldn’t you understand that it was -done for a purpose?” - -“We thought the piskies had done it,” said Loveday, as though that -excused everything. - -“You thought _what_!” cried the gentleman. “You thought the piskies--! -Oh dear, dear! To think that such ignorance should exist in this -twentieth century! It is disgraceful!” Then, turning to the children: -“Come with me while I decide what can be done.” - -Loveday followed with less fear than she would have felt a few moments -earlier. For one reason, Mr. Winter did not seem quite so angry as he -had at first; for another, he had not spoken again of policemen; and, -for a third reason, she was rather anxious to see what the house looked -like inside. - -But here she was disappointed, for Mr. Winter led them so quickly -through the bare stone hall that they saw very little of the house, and -then he showed them into a small, bare room, with a window high up out -of their reach, and there left them. And as he went they heard him turn -the key on them, at which they looked at each other in horror, while -he walked slowly away to his own sitting-room to think; for what to do -with the pair now he had them was more than he could tell. He wanted to -frighten them, yet he had no thought now of sending for a policeman. In -fact, he would have liked to have sent them both away with a warning, -only he thought it was better that they should be kept a little longer -as a punishment. - -Meanwhile, Bessie, having got up very early to be ready for her husband -on his return from his fishing, went to call Aaron rather earlier -than usual, and was shocked to find his bed empty and himself flown. -Astonished and troubled, she went to Loveday’s room, and, opening the -door gently, peeped in. When she found Loveday’s room empty too, and -the windows wide open, she grew really alarmed. She listened, but -there was no sound but the voice of the sea and the gulls. The silence -frightened her. Where could they be? She ran to the front door, and -looked out over the sands. No; no sign of them there. She searched the -house and called and called, but no answer came. What could she do -next? Find them she must, but where? Her eye fell on the sparkling sea. - -“Oh, not out there!” she cried, turning sick with fear. - -Far out she saw the boats coming in, but they could not help her or -tell her anything. She turned away, unable to bear the sight; and as -she did so her eye fell on the path up the cliff. A ray of comfort -crept into her heart. Something seemed to tell her that that path would -lead her to them. Of course, there was risk there, too, but not such -risk. - -Without waiting to put on hat or shawl, poor Bessie hurried up the -steep path. She forced herself to look over the rugged sides every -now and then, though it made her feel ill to do so, until she came at -last to that spot where the children had thrown the straw over the day -before. But when she came to that she turned away, faint and full of -horror. - -“I can’t look,” she groaned. “I can’t! I can’t! I’ll get a fence put -round there if I have to do it myself. The least little slip, and -nothing could save one, whether man, woman, child, or poor dumb animal.” - -When she reached the top of the hill she met a new perplexity. Where -could she look now? Which way could she go?--to Mr. Winter’s, or right -on over the downs which stretched away to the very edge of the cliff? - -“Well,” she thought, “they wouldn’t go to Mr. Winter’s if they could -help it;” and she turned and walked in the other direction, on and on, -past the Fairy Ring, and all the time she gazed about her, but never a -speck of anything living or moving could she see, and she turned away -in despair. Coming slowly back, she once more reached Mr. Winter’s gate. - -“I’ve a good mind to go in and ask Mrs. Tucker if she has caught sight -or sound of them,” she sighed. “It isn’t likely, but when one’s in -despair-- Oh, my Aaron! my Aaron and Miss Loveday! What will the master -and missus say?” - -And poor Bessie had begun to cry with fright and misery, when, just as -she had turned in at Mr. Winter’s gate, who should she see coming down -the pebbly path towards her but two dejected little figures, walking -hand in hand. - -At the first sight of her they paused, hardly recognising her, and half -afraid--then, with a cry, they rushed into her arms, and for a few -minutes all three wept together. - -“What ’ave ’ee been doing--where ’ave ’ee been?” cried Bessie, the -first to check her tears. “Oh, my dear life, the fright you’ve gived -me, Aaron! I ought to lace your jacket for you; it’s what you deserves. -But I haven’t the heart to. Oh, my dear life! the fright I’ve had, and -how glad I am to see ’ee both. I don’t know what I haven’t thought -might have happened to ’ee. But what have you been doing, you naughty, -naughty children, to leave your beds and get out of window like that? -I’ll never be able to trust ’ee any more, and I’ll have bars put to -them windows before I sleep to-night!” - -By this time some of their alarm had passed off, but the children -sobbed on, partly from hunger, partly from weariness and shock, but a -great deal from the sense of their naughtiness to poor Bessie, who had -been so good and kind to them; and it was not until they had sobbed -out all their story that they could control themselves and feel at all -comforted. - -Bessie did not scold them any more, but she looked very grave. - -“Well,” she said, “there is no knowing what Mr. Winter will do, for -he is a funny kind of gentleman, and you were very naughty children; -and what you have to do now is to make up your minds to bear what he -does do. A pretty fine tale I’ve got to write to your ma and pa, Miss -Loveday,” she added, “and a nice bit of news you’ve got for father -when he comes home”--turning to Aaron--“and he been out all night too, -working hard to get you food and clothes!” - -Aaron began to weep again, touched to the heart by remorse. - -“I’ll write to daddy myself and tell him,” sighed Loveday penitently. -“Perhaps it won’t frighten him so much if he hears it from me first. -I’ll write directly after breakfast, and then I’ll go and post it. May -I, Bessie?” - -“Yes, miss, if you’ll promise not to run away again,” said Bessie -severely. “You see, I don’t feel sure now about trusting either of you. -I think I shall have to hobble you both, like they do the goats, or -tether you.” - -At which Loveday felt more humbled than ever she had in her life -before. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -PRISCILLA PAYS A CALL AND TAKES A JOURNEY - - -By this time Priscilla was so much better she was able to go for short -walks and, best of all, for drives with her father. She loved these -better than anything, for she had her father all to herself, and it was -delightful to sit propped up with cushions, and with no strap around -her to keep her from falling out, and so to drive Betsy up the hills, -for she could manage that with her one hand, while her father read to -her. - -One day they drove to Lady Carey’s house. Priscilla did not like that -very well, for she had not seen Lady Carey since that dreadful day when -she had caught her sweeping the drawing-room. But Lady Carey was not -very well, and Dr. Carlyon had been sent for, and as she had been very -kind to Geoffrey and Priscilla while they were ill, and had sent them -fruit and flowers and picture-papers, he thought Priscilla should go -herself and thank her for her kindness, if Lady Carey was well enough -to see her. - -Lady Carey was well enough, and after the doctor had paid his visit, -he came out to the carriage for Priscilla, who had been sitting there -feeling very nervous all the time, and half hoping, though she would -not have liked any one to know it, that Lady Carey would decide that -she felt too unwell and too tired to see visitors. - -She looked as grave and nervous as she felt when her father lifted her -down from the dog-cart, and straightened her hat and her frock, and led -her through the big, cool, flower-scented hall to the pretty, shady -room where Lady Carey sat in her big chair by the open window looking -out on the flower-garden. - -“Priscilla has come to thank you for all your kindness to her, and -to say good-bye before going to Porthcallis,” said the doctor; and -Priscilla walked sedately up to the pretty invalid, shook hands, and, -after only a second’s nervous hesitation, put up her face to kiss her. - -Lady Carey returned the kiss very heartily, and pulling a little low -chair close to her, told Priscilla to sit on it. - -Priscilla did so gladly; it was such a charming little chair, with gilt -legs and back and a cushioned seat of a delicate grey silk with roses -worked all over it. - -“Oh, how pretty--” she began, then stopped abruptly as she remembered -Nurse’s directions that it is not polite to remark on what one sees, -and at the same moment she noticed that her father had gone away and -left her alone with her hostess. - -But before she could feel alarmed by this, Lady Carey had begun to talk -to her, and to ask her questions about her arm, and her illness, and -her coming visit to the seaside, and then about Loveday; and very soon -Priscilla was telling her all about Loveday and her bucket, and Aaron, -and Miss Potts, and all sorts of things; and Lady Carey told Priscilla -of how she used to stay by the sea when she was a little girl, and all -kinds of other interesting tales; and Priscilla felt that she could -stay there and listen to her and talk to her for ever so long. But -presently Dr. Carlyon put his head in again. - -“Lady Carey, I think your visitor has stayed long enough for one day. -Will you tell her to go, please?” - -Lady Carey laughed. “I shall tell you to go for just five minutes -longer,” she said brightly. “I have something I especially want to say -to Priscilla before we part.” - -“I suppose I must, then,” said the doctor, laughing, as he turned away. - -“Will you ring that bell for me, Priscilla, please?” said Lady Carey, -as soon as he had gone. - -Priscilla went over and pulled very, very carefully at a pretty silk -bell-pull which hung beside the fireplace. It was a very gentle pull, -but it answered all right, for in a moment a very neat and smiling maid -appeared. - -“Sanders, will you go to my room and bring me down that parcel you -placed on the table at the foot of my bed this morning.” - -“Yes, ’m,” said Sanders; and away she went, and in a moment or so was -back again with a big paper parcel in her hand, which she handed to -Lady Carey. - -Priscilla looked on with interest, wondering what it all meant. - -“I have something here,” said Lady Carey, untying the string, “that I -have been making for you and your little sister; and I want to give you -yours now, and I will ask you to take Loveday’s to her, for I think -you may both find them useful by the sea;” and, unwrapping the paper, -Lady Carey took out and shook out a pretty warm cloak, big enough to -cover Priscilla to the hem of her skirts. It was made of a soft blue -cloth, bound with ribbon, and it had a hood lined with silk of the same -shade. - -Priscilla was so delighted and surprised when she saw it, and heard -that it was for her, that she could hardly speak. - -“Now try it on,” said Lady Carey; and Priscilla was soon enveloped -in the cloak, with the hood drawn over her curls, and her grey eyes -and pretty pale face looked up at her kind friend so gratefully that -Lady Carey drew her to her, and held her very close as she kissed her -affectionately. - -“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” cried Priscilla, finding her -voice at last. “I love my cloak; I think it is perfectly beautiful!” - -Then Lady Carey undid the other parcel, and took out a red one made in -the same way. - -“This is for Loveday. Do you think she will like it?” - -Priscilla was again almost speechless with delight. - -“She will _love_ hers too,” she cried at last rapturously. “And she -looks so pretty in red. Thank you, Lady Carey, very much indeed. Oh, I -want Loveday to see them both, now, at once, and I want mother to see, -and father. O father,” she cried, running to him as he came into the -room again, “_do_ look at what Lady Carey has made for Loveday and me!” - -Of how she got out of the house, of her good-byes, and her drive home -Priscilla remembered nothing. Of course, she wore her blue cloak--it -would have been too much to expect her not to--and when she got home -she flew into the house to tell her mother her news. But the next thing -that clearly stood out in Priscilla’s mind when she thought it all over -afterwards was her father’s coming into the room with a letter in his -hand. Mrs. Carlyon was sitting with Loveday’s red cloak in her hands -(Priscilla always remembered that); her own she was still wearing, and -was feeling it rather warm, when her father drove all other thoughts -out of her head by saying: “Just listen, dear, to this extraordinary -letter that I have had from Loveday,” and he read it aloud. - - “MY DEAR DADDY,--Plese will you come at once, I am in great truble I - wassent nawty reely but mr. winter sais we are and he was going to - get a polisman, but he diden, he let us go home whil he thot what he - shud do to punnish us I hop he won’t send us to prissen, Bessie lost - us and cride and took us home. Do come quik, I am very sory, we were - piskies. How is prissy.--Your loving - - “LOVEDAY. Do come quik.” - -As she listened to this letter Priscilla thought she should have -fainted with fright. Policemen! and prison! and Loveday perhaps with -handcuffs on, and oh, so frightened! She looked with a white face and -terrified eyes at her mother, who was still holding the red cloak, and, -somehow, the sight of that made it all seem more dreadful. - -“O father, what can we do?” she cried piteously. “Loveday shan’t go to -prison; she mustn’t! She can’t have been naughty enough for that.” - -But to her surprise her father, instead of being frightened and angry, -looked almost as though he were amused about something--at least, until -he glanced at Priscilla; but when he saw her white face, he grew grave -at once. - -“Don’t be foolish, darling,” he said, drawing her to him. “You surely -aren’t really frightened. It cannot be anything very serious, or -Bessie would have written too, or telegraphed; she wouldn’t have left -it to Loveday to have told us all about a serious matter. I expect -the truth of it is that Miss Loveday and Master Aaron have been up to -some mischief, and some one--a Mr. Winter I think she calls him--has -frightened them, or tried to, by talking about prison and police.” - -Mrs. Carlyon, who had been lost in thought for some minutes, suddenly -looked up. - -“Mr. Winter!” she exclaimed. “Why, that is the name of that poor -gentleman whose only son was drowned there, before his father’s eyes, -some few years ago. He has shut himself up there ever since. Don’t you -remember, dear?” - -“Of course; yes, I remember now,” said the doctor, nodding his head -thoughtfully. “A curious, morose old man. I met him once. I think it is -his cottage that the Lobbs live in.” - -All this time he was sitting with one arm round Priscilla, who stood -very silent, with her head laid against her father’s shoulder, her face -very white and troubled still. “It is all right, dear, I am sure,” he -said, suddenly noticing how ill she looked; “don’t you worry about it.” - -“But, father, do you think it is all right?” asked Priscilla, in a -trembling voice. - -“Oh yes,” said Dr. Carlyon cheerfully. “I haven’t a doubt. I think -I will go and send a telegram to Bessie to say I will just run down -to-morrow for the day,” he added; “then I shall know for certain what -is amiss. And, what do you say? Shall I take Prissy with me, instead of -waiting till next week? The change will be good for her, I think, and, -at any rate, she will have Loveday under her eye, and know that the -policeman has not got her locked up in a cell. While I am there I can -look about for rooms, too, for the rest of us. Don’t you think those -are very nice plans, little woman?”--turning to Priscilla. “You would -like to go down with me to-morrow, wouldn’t you, and help look for -rooms for mother and Geoffrey?” - -“Oh yes,” cried Priscilla, throwing one arm about her father’s neck and -kissing him, “please, father;” and her face, though still very pale, -grew brighter and less alarmed-looking. - -“But--do you think it will be all right to wait till then? They won’t -take away Loveday, or----” - -“My dear, they couldn’t, and wouldn’t. Of course not; I expect we shall -have a letter by the next post from Bessie. Now I will go to the office -and send this telegram, and tell Bessie to be sure and let me know if I -must come before to-morrow.” And away he went. - -After all this Priscilla felt too tired and languid to do anything, -even to sort out the toys she wanted to take with her, but when -presently a telegram came back from Bessie to say, “All well, nothing -serious,” she felt very much happier, and grew quite excited at the -thought that she was going to see Loveday to-morrow, and to take her -her red cloak, and she lay back very contentedly in her chair and -watched her mother and Nurse looking over her clothes to see what they -should pack, and then arranging them in her box. - -By the post next morning came Bessie’s letter telling them all about -Loveday’s and Aaron’s escapade. When Priscilla heard it she felt very -frightened again, for it seemed such a dreadful thing that they had -done. But still her father did not seem very much concerned, and, -seeing him so cheerful, Priscilla tried to be so too, though in her -secret heart she had a great dread of the morose, mysterious Mr. -Winter, and did not feel at all sure that, after all, he would not -fulfil his threat, and send for a policeman. - -However, on a bright sunny morning, with a lot to do, with farewell -visits to pay to Miss Potts, Mrs. Tickell, and many others, a journey -to the sea before one, two new cloaks, hidden away where they could -easily be got at, a little sister, and the sea, and a holiday at the -end of the journey, no one could feel quite, quite miserable. And with -the sun shining and the breeze blowing, and Betsy trotting quickly -along between the flower-decked hedges, and Geoffrey beside one making -fun, it did not seem possible that anything very, very dreadful _could_ -happen, and Priscilla’s spirits rose enormously. - -She felt quite sorry for Hocking, who was to be left behind. - -“O Hocking,” she sighed, “don’t you wish you were going to the seaside -too?” - -But Hocking did not seem at all perturbed at being left behind. “What’s -the use of wishing, miss?” he said slowly; “if wishes were ’orses -beggars would ride.” - -Priscilla looked at him for a moment, puzzled, then looked away to try -and think out his meaning. “I don’t see any sense in that,” she said at -last, having thought the matter over for some time. “If they were on -horseback they couldn’t beg, and they wouldn’t be beggars.” - -“Ezzackly, miss,” said Hocking stolidly, as though that was what he had -been arguing, and did not open his lips again. - -At the station Priscilla kissed Betsy, shook hands with Hocking, and -then went with Geoffrey on to the platform, while her father took the -tickets. She wished now that Geoffrey was coming too, and she told him -so. - -“I wish I was,” said Geoffrey; “but, you see, I’ve got to wait and -bring mother and Nurse. If I hadn’t, I’d have gone to old Winter and -jolly well told him what I thought of him for frightening a child as -small as Loveday. I call it cowardly, and--and he _ought_ to be told of -it too.” - -Priscilla gasped at the mere thought of Geoffrey’s daring. But after -she had said good-bye to him, and he had driven off homewards with -Hocking, and she and her father had settled down comfortably in a -carriage to themselves, her thoughts flew again to what he had said -about Mr. Winter, and by-and-by a thought came into her mind, which -grew and grew, until before long it had become a very firm resolution. - -If Geoffrey thought it right to go to Mr. Winter and speak for Loveday, -it was right for her to do so. She could not speak as severely as -Geoffrey said he should, and perhaps it might be better not to; but she -could say something, and she made up her mind to go on the very first -opportunity--that is, if her father did not do so--and ask to see Mr. -Winter, and then apologise for what Loveday had done, and ask him to -forgive her. - -So occupied was she with this plan that she never once spoke all the -way to Porthcallis, and her father at last looked quite anxiously over -his paper at her, so serious and grave was her face, and her eyes so -very troubled. - -“You aren’t feeling homesick, are you?” he asked gently. - -Priscilla looked up with a start and then a smile. - -“No, father,” she said brightly, “’cause mother and Geoffrey will come -soon, and you too.” - -And after that she tried to laugh and talk a good deal, for she did not -want any one to guess her secret. - -“Have you Loveday’s red cloak with you?” - -“Yes; it is in this basket, so that I can get at it quite easily. I -think she will be able to wear it back from the station, don’t you, -father? It seems rather cold, I think.” - -“Very cold!” laughed Dr. Carlyon, pretending to shiver as the -sea-breeze swept into the compartment. “Now, then, look out for the -first glimpse of the sea, and now for the station, and----” - -“And Loveday!” almost shrieked Priscilla. “She is here. O father, -father, she is here! She isn’t a prisoner yet!” and, by Priscilla’s -rapturous relief, Dr. Carlyon realised how great, in spite of all, had -been her secret fears. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -PRISCILLA PAYS ANOTHER CALL - - -Loveday was not a prisoner, but she was somewhat subdued and ashamed -of herself, and Priscilla, who felt very, very sorry for her, and -forgot all about her naughtiness and the injury she had done, was quite -troubled to see how grave her father looked, and how sternly he spoke -to her. - -“Well,” he said, “this is a nice thing! Here am I, called away from -my patients and everything, to come and help a little girl who cannot -be trusted to go a-visiting by herself but she must go and behave -disgracefully, and bring shame on us all! What have you to say for -yourself?” - -“Nothing, daddy,” cried the disgraced one, flinging herself into his -arms and burying her face on his shoulder, while the spade and the -bucket with “Thomas” on it went clattering to the ground. - -Fortunately, Dr. Carlyon had not put his harrowing questions until -they had passed the green and the houses, and were in the little hotel -where they were to have dinner before going to interview Bessie. But -his stern silence all the way had impressed Loveday more than any words -could have done, and when at last he spoke, her poor little troubled -heart could bear no more. - -“O daddy,” she sobbed, “I only meaned to be very kind, and to make him -happy ’cause he’d lost his son and was very unhappy, and we got up in -the morning when we were so sleepy and tired we didn’t want to get up -a bit, but it was to help him, and we wanted to make it all look nice, -and we thought ’twas the piskies put the old straw there, but it was -Mr. Winter did it--and how could we know? _Of course_ we shouldn’t -have done it if we had! And then Mr. Winter came out and caught us. -Oh, ’twas ever so early, and he was so angry, he looked--oh, he looked -as if he would eat us! and he said such dreadful things, and I told -him all about it. I ’splained everything, but he doesn’t believe there -are any fairies, and then he took us indoors and locked us in a room -while he thought what he’d do with us, and I was ’fraid he’d heave us -to cliff like we heaved the straw, but Aaron said he’d know better -than do that ’cause he’d be hanged for it. Aaron talked a lot when we -were locked in, and Mr. Winter wasn’t there, but he was nearly crying -before. I don’t think much of Aaron, and I’ll--I’ll never like him -any more! He said he reckoned Mr. Winter would turn them out of their -cottage for what we had done, and ’twould be all my fault, and I told -him he was a very bad, mean boy to say such things, and if he didn’t -take care all that he ate would turn acid like it did to the wicked -uncle in the Babes of the Wood, but all he said was that he wouldn’t -mind that, if he could only get something to eat.” - -“Well,” said her father, with a patient sigh, but holding his erring -little daughter very close, “you seem to have had a pleasant ten -minutes in your prison--but get on with your story.” - -“Ten minutes!” cried Loveday, drawing back in her surprise to look up -at his face; “ten hours more likely, daddy!” - -“Oh! was it nearly night then when you came out?” - -“Well, no--but it was _quite_ breakfast-time when we got home.” - -“I see--it seemed like ten hours.” - -“Oh yes!” sighed Loveday, with a very sober shake of her curly head; -“and it was such a dirty, horrid little room. I don’t think Mrs. Tucker -can be a very clean person,” she added, in a grave confidential tone. - -“Never mind Mrs. Tucker--get on with your story. I don’t suppose you -were very clean either at that time in the morning!” - -“Well--you see we always washed when we got up the second time. We were -in too great a hurry the first time.” - -“What did Mr. Winter say when he came back and let you out?” asked Dr. -Carlyon. - -“He said he hadn’t been able to think of a punishment yet, so we might -go home then, and he would send for us later. Aaron said that was -because it was going to be something dreadful, and I wanted to run away -to some place where I could never be caught; but Aaron said it would be -mean to go and leave him to face it all. Would it, father?” - -“Very. I am extremely glad you did not do that.” - -“But, daddy, s’posing he sends me away from you! What shall I do?” and -the blue eyes filled with tears again. - -And at the sight of them, and the thought of such a dreadful -possibility, Priscilla, who had been standing near with a very, very -serious face, listening to all the harrowing story, almost wept too, -and told her precious secret in her desire to comfort her little sister. - -“Oh, dear little Loveday, don’t cry any more! You won’t be sent away--I -am sure you won’t. And just look here at the lovely present I’ve got -for you! Father, put her down, that she may try it on.” - -For the moment, at any rate, all Loveday’s woes vanished, and Priscilla -forgot her cares, too, in the excitement and happiness at the pleasure -in store for Loveday. And then the basket was opened, and out came the -parcel, and the red cloak was unfolded, and displayed before Loveday’s -dazzled eyes; and her delight was as great as even Priscilla had hoped -it would be. - -“For me!” she cried--“_me_! For my very own! O Prissy, how lovely! What -a dear! Let me put it on quick. Do you think it will suit me?” And in -another moment the pretty red cloak was round her, and the hood drawn -over her tumbled curls, while Prissy, like a little mother, knelt to -button it round her, managing as best she could with her one hand. - -“Do I look _very_ pretty in it?” asked Loveday, appealing, quite -unembarrassed, to her father. - -“Well, not so _very_ plain,” said her father, pretending to study her -very critically. “I have seen you look worse,” though in his heart he -thought he had seldom seen anything so charming as the little flushed -face, the eyes still bright with unshed tears, surrounded by its tangle -of curls and the red hood. - -“Has Prissie got one?” she asked, quite undisturbed by her father’s -remark. - -“Yes--mine is blue,” cried Priscilla, dragging hers out of the basket -too. “I like mine best for me, but I like the red best for you. Look, -isn’t mine lovely!” and she put the cloak on over her little print -frock. - -Then came a long comparison and examination of both. “I think I like -my buttons best,” said Loveday, at the end of the inspection, “but you -have a clasp on yours. Never mind--perhaps I shall get a clasp too some -day.” - -Then followed the long story of Priscilla’s call on Lady Carey, and of -Lady Carey’s sending for the parcel, and every detail of Priscilla’s -visit, even to the chair and the bell-pull; and it took so long to tell -that the servant came in and laid the cloth and placed the dinner on -the table before it was all done. - -Loveday was so delighted with her cloak she could not be persuaded to -take it off even for dinner, so she wore it throughout the meal, and -all the way to Bessie’s too, “because,” as she said, “it matched her -bucket so beautifully, and would give Bessie such a surprise.” - -And Bessie really was surprised to see her little lady come back -enveloped in a long, warm red cloak, with the hood drawn snugly over -her head, especially as that same little lady had in the morning -protested that it was too hot to bear even a cotton coat over her -cotton frock. - -Then Priscilla having been welcomed and kissed and crooned over by -Bessie, and the cloaks having been admired, and Aaron introduced and -allowed to run away and hide, Priscilla and Loveday were sent out to -amuse themselves on the beach, while Dr. Carlyon talked over all the -dreadful doings of his younger daughter and Bessie’s son. - -It was then that Priscilla breathed to Loveday her great plan of going -up to call on Mr. Winter. At first she had not intended to let Loveday -into the secret, but she soon saw how impossible it would be to get -away from her, that there would be a hue and cry if she were missed, -and that matters then would be worse than ever. So Loveday was told, -and her help proved to be of the greatest use. - -“Of course,” said Prissy, “if father is going up there this afternoon, -I needn’t go.” - -But they soon learnt, to their surprise, that Dr. Carlyon had no -intention of going, for, after his talk with Bessie, he came out to -them on the beach to say that Bessie had given him the addresses of -some lodgings, and he was now going to see if either of them would suit. - -“I think you had better not come with me, dear,” he said to Prissy. -“You look tired.” - -Priscilla agreed, not because she did not want to go, but because she -wanted to do something else. - -“But--but,” she began nervously, “father, aren’t you going to see Mr. -Winter?” - -“No, dear,” he said quite cheerfully, and not at all as though he were -alarmed. “I think, from what Bessie tells me, that I had better wait -until I hear something more from Mr. Winter himself before I take any -steps in the matter. Loveday, would you like to come with me or to stay -with Priscilla? I expect you would rather stay.” - -“No, I’d rather go with you, I think,” said Loveday, her mind full of -Priscilla’s plan. - -“Well, Priscilla will have plenty of you, and I haven’t seen you for a -long time,” said Dr. Carlyon, “so come along. Prissy, you had better -rest till we come back. Now, then, Loveday, are you ready?” - -And off they went. Priscilla felt rather deceitful as they left her, -and she felt even more so when Bessie showed her to the little room -that she and Loveday were now to share. - -“Now, missie,” she said, “you shall have a nice sleep; the house will -be very quiet. Aaron is going to Melland with his father, and I shall -be sitting outside the front door with my sewing. If you want me, you -have only to call.” - -Priscilla thanked her, and thought, with thankfulness, that things -seemed to be arranging themselves on purpose for her. She felt rather -troubled about it, but she really had taken fresh alarm at her father’s -remark that he should wait until he heard more. “Why will they put it -off?” she thought anxiously; “they will leave it until too late, and -the policeman will come before they have done anything, and then it -will be no good!” It seemed to her very, very foolish and rash, and she -felt quite glad that Loveday was in her father’s care, for there she -would be safer than anywhere. - -She went into the bedroom and shut the door, and lay down for a little -while, until, at last, she heard Aaron and his father start, and -Bessie settle down under the verandah to her sewing. When Priscilla had -heard her singing softly to herself for some time, she felt that at -last it would be safe to start. To cover her light cotton frock, which -would have made her very conspicuous as she mounted the cliff, she -put on her blue cloak, hood and all; but she carried her hat beneath -it, for she thought it would be more fitting to be wearing a hat when -making a first call, and one of such importance too. - -Loveday had told her exactly how to go, and Bessie having been unable -to get the bars put up at the window yet, Priscilla slipped out easily -enough, and was soon hurrying up the cliff. At first all her fear -was of being seen, and stopped, but later, when she neared the top, -other fears seized her. Mr. Winter seemed suddenly to grow almost too -formidable to face, and when she reached the gate she hesitated a -moment, really too nervous to go a step farther. - -But she thought of Loveday, who would be all the time thinking of her, -and counting on her interference; and she thought of all the dreadful -things that might happen, making herself picture the very worst, to -help to get her courage up. And then she quickly opened the gate, -walked gravely up to the door, and knocked before she had time to give -way to her fears again. - -[Illustration: “PRISCILLA SLIPPED OUT EASILY.”] - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -MR. WINTER - - -The housekeeper, grim and silent as usual, opened the door. Her look -and manner alone were sufficient to alarm Priscilla, and send her home -with errand undone. - -“Is--is Mr. Winter at home?” she asked. - -“Yes, he is,” answered the woman. She was so absorbed in staring -at Priscilla, and studying every detail of her face and figure and -clothing, one could have been excused for thinking she had not really -taken in what was said to her. Under her rude stare and forbidding -manner, a faint pink flush came into Priscilla’s pale cheeks. - -“Is Mr. Winter at home, please?” repeated Priscilla; adding, as firmly -as she could, “I want to see him.” - -“Then you can’t,” answered the housekeeper rudely; “he don’t see -visitors. What’s your name?” - -“I think Mr. Winter would see me,” said Priscilla eagerly. The fear -that after all she might not be able to reach him with her appeal made -her desperate. She had never contemplated failure of that kind. “My -name is Carlyon, but I don’t suppose Mr. Winter would know it. I want -very much indeed to see him, though. It is most important.” - -“What for? What can a little girl like you want to be troubling a -gentleman like Mr. Winter for?” she asked roughly. “If you’re come -begging for clubs or charities or things, I can tell you at once, it -isn’t any good, and you can run away as quick as you come.” - -“But I am not begging,” said Priscilla emphatically--“not for money.” - -“Well, we haven’t got any flowers or fruit to give away. I can tell ’ee -that too. So you may as well run ’long home to where you come from.” - -“You shouldn’t speak like that,” said Priscilla indignantly; “you -shouldn’t be rude.” She was hurt and insulted, and she felt that this -woman would prevent her seeing her master if she possibly could. “I -spoke quite civilly to you, and I’ve come on important business, and I -am sure Mr. Winter would see me if he knew I wanted him. But it doesn’t -matter; I will write to him,” and she turned away with great dignity, -but only just in time to prevent the woman from seeing the tears that -would well up in her eyes. - -Very angry indeed, Mrs. Tucker shut the door with a bang, while -Priscilla walked down the gravel path with great dignity, her head -held high, but with, oh! such an aching heart, such despair and -disappointment; and then, suddenly, a gentleman appeared at her side -and was speaking to her quite kindly. - -“What is the matter?” he asked, not ungently; “you are in trouble? Can -I do anything for you?” - -Just for a second he had thought this must be his little culprit of -a day or two since, but when he looked again he saw that the strange -visitor was taller and older, and her face, though like that other -one, was paler, and thinner, and graver. - -For a moment Priscilla could not control the quivering of her lips, or -choke back the tears which had forced their way up. - -“I wanted to see Mr. Winter,” she gasped. “I want very much to see him, -and the woman was so rude, she wouldn’t even ask him if he would see -me.” - -“I know; I heard her,” said the stranger sternly. “But it is all right. -I am Mr. Winter. What do you want with me?” - -And then when she was face to face with him, with the morose recluse, -the mysterious tyrant who was going to do all sorts of unkind things to -Loveday and Aaron, Priscilla could not for a moment think of anything -she wanted to say. - -“Please,” she stammered, wondering where she could begin, “I have come -to--to--to ask you to forgive my little sister, Loveday Carlyon. I know -she was mischievous, but she didn’t mean to be--she didn’t, really; she -wanted to be kind to you, because they said--because--oh, because she -thought you were sad and lonely, and she--and she--oh! you won’t have -her punished _very_ severely, will you, or sent to gaol? Oh, _please_, -don’t! She will never, never do such a thing again, I know!” - -“Um! She won’t, won’t she?” - -“Oh no!” said Priscilla eagerly; “never! She really did think it was -the piskies that put the straw there to annoy you----” - -“Nonsense!” said Mr. Winter sharply. Then he added, more gently: “The -idea of any one believing such rubbish in these days!” - -“Loveday does,” said Priscilla earnestly--“she does, really--and--and -I want her to go on believing. _I_ did once, and it was, oh! _ever_ so -much nicer than now when I know it isn’t any use to. I wish I’d never -been told there aren’t any fairies, really. When you think there are, -it seems as if such lots of beautiful things may happen, you never know -what, and--and it always seems as if they were going to.” - -“Ay, ay, little girl,” said Mr. Winter, looking down at her -thoughtfully, “it is very sad when folk don’t leave us fairies, or--or -anything else to believe in. But they won’t.” - -Priscilla did not know what reply to make to this, so she made none. -After a pause Mr. Winter looked at her again. - -“You look pale and tired,” he said, trying still to speak coldly, but -not succeeding very well. “You don’t look as strong as that mischievous -sister of yours.” - -“I have been ill,” said Priscilla, and she told him of the accident -with the swing, and throwing back her cloak to show him her arm still -in its sling, she saw, and for the first time remembered, her hat. For -a moment a hot blush dyed her face, and then she burst into a hearty -peal of laughter. At the sound of it Mr. Winter started, then grew even -paler than he had been. No sound of childish laughter had been heard -in that place since the day his boy left him to start on his fatal -expedition. - -“I meant to have put it on,” she explained, “before I reached your -gate; I thought it was more--more right to have on a hat when one paid -a call. I only put on my cloak because I was afraid my dress would show -as I came up the cliff, and I was afraid some one would see me and stop -me.” - -Mr. Winter had recovered himself by this time, and seeing that she -could but badly manage with one hand to slip back the hood and put on -her hat, he actually helped her. At the touch of the soft curls, at -the frank, grateful glance of the childish eyes, a new sense of life -and happiness ran through his chilled veins, a new peace came to the -heart that had for so long waged a bitter, resentful war against God, -himself, and his fellow-creatures. - -When the hat was satisfactorily adjusted, a sudden silence fell upon -them; his mind and heart were teeming with thoughts and sensations that -to Priscilla would have been incomprehensible. Priscilla was wondering -what she could say and do next. He had not said he would forgive -Loveday, and she did not like to leave without his promise, and oh! she -was feeling so tired she did not know how to begin her pleading again. -She _must_, though. She felt that; and then she would go away, and when -she got out of sight she would rest a little before she went all down -that steep path again. - -“Mr. Winter--you haven’t said yet, but will you forgive Loveday, -please?” she asked, suddenly growing shy and nervous again. But it was -the weariness, the weakness of her voice that struck her hearer most. -He looked sharply at her, and her pale, wan little face sent a pang to -his heart, a pang he could not understand. - -“Yes, of course, child, of course,” he said hastily. “I am not an ogre. -I was only pretending to be, to frighten the two young scamps a little. -I did not intend to punish them any further. You may run home and tell -your sister what I say. But,” he added abruptly, “you are not fit to -walk all the way back; you have walked too far already, and I have kept -you standing all this time. Come in and rest for a few minutes, and -have a glass of milk. You will get home in half the time after it.” - -But Priscilla hesitated. She was shy of penetrating that gloomy house, -with only this stranger, of whom she still felt some awe, and that -dreadful woman, whom she frankly disliked. - -“You would rather not,” he said, quick to notice her hesitation; “don’t -be afraid to speak out, child. I quite understand.” - -But Priscilla noticed the hurt tone in his voice, and was touched. “I -would like to very much, thank you,” she said weakly. “I am dreadfully -tired,” she added, almost as though the words escaped her against her -will. The next moment she was crossing the bare stone hall into which -Loveday had peered so enviously, and was admitted to Mr. Winter’s own -private sitting-room, which no one but himself had entered for years. - -Of all the women in this wide world, Mr. Winter’s housekeeper was at -that moment the most astounded, and what to make of things, and of the -change in her master, she did not know. But in her heart she very much -wished that she had treated this little visitor more civilly when she -had first come knocking at the door. - -Priscilla sat in a big arm-chair, and drank milk and ate biscuits, -and Mr. Winter sat in another and stared out of window, his mind -absorbed in thoughts. They wandered far and wide, yet when, presently, -Priscilla’s voice broke the silence, both his and hers must have been -hovering near the same subject. - -“Miss Potts,” she broke out suddenly--“she is a friend of mine at -home,” she explained--“Miss Potts couldn’t bear the sight of the -sea either; it had swallowed up _all her_ family, all but her and -her mother.” Mr. Winter’s eyelids quivered, and his face contracted -sharply, but Priscilla could not see his face, or she might have paused -in what she was saying. As it was, though, she continued: “But _she_ -left it. She didn’t draw her blinds because she couldn’t bear to look -at it, but she went right away, and--and she told me she had been -_ever_ so much happier ever since.” - -A deep silence followed her remarks, a silence which presently -frightened Priscilla, and as it continued, she slipped off her chair -and crept to the door. She felt that she had offended past forgiveness. -“I ought not to have mentioned the sea, or the blinds, or let him -know I knew anything about the story,” she thought with a sudden, -overwhelming sense of her own want of tact. But when she reached the -door she paused; she could not, after all his kindness, go and leave -him without a word. So she crept back again very gently and very -slowly, until she reached his side. - -“I--I am dreadfully sorry,” she gasped. “I did not mean to hurt you.” -Then, as still he did not speak, in real distress she laid her hand on -his thin hand as it rested on his knee, while the other supported his -head. “Mr. Winter,” she said, in a frightened voice, her lip quivering, -“I am so sorry; I did not mean to hurt you, only I--I felt so sorry for -you, and--” - -“You haven’t hurt me, child,” he said at last, speaking very slowly, in -a curious still voice; “it is I who have hurt myself all these years. -I was very glad to hear about your friend. I am grateful to you for -telling me about her. She was a wise and brave woman. Now,” rousing -himself and rising, “if you are rested you would like to go home, I -expect. I will see you to the gate.” - -At the gate he took the little hand she held out. “You will come and -see me again, I hope?” he asked. - -“Oh yes,” said Priscilla warmly; “I will come quite soon, if you would -like me to.” - -As she walked away she turned every now and then to wave her hand to -the solitary-looking old man who stood at his gate, and watched her -until she had disappeared from his sight. - -“Did you see him? What did he say? Was he very cross?” whispered -Loveday anxiously, rushing to find her the moment they returned. - -“He--oh, he asked me to come again,” said Priscilla absently. - -“But didn’t he say anything about me and Aaron?”--with a surprised and -disappointed look. - -“Oh yes. He told me to say he forgave you, and he wouldn’t think -anything more about it.” - -“Well,” cried Loveday, in a voice full of reproach, “you might have -told me at once, when you knew how anxious I was. I have been thinking -about it all the time I’ve been out. You don’t look a bit as though -you had good news for me; I thought you would have been--oh, _ever_ so -glad that I wasn’t to be sent to prison;” and Loveday’s lip actually -quivered with disappointment at Priscilla’s seeming indifference. - -“I am!” cried Priscilla, rousing herself; “I am so glad; and, oh dear, -there are such lots of things to be glad about. I don’t know which to -think about first.” - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -IN WHICH A GREAT MANY THINGS HAPPEN - - -Four such happy, beautiful weeks followed. Mrs. Carlyon and Geoffrey -came down to Porthcallis within a few days, and they all settled into -the comfortable rooms Dr. Carlyon had taken for them. Loveday was very -sorry to leave Bessie and Aaron and the dear little bedroom; but they -went every day to “Bessie’s beach,” as they called it, for it was their -favourite play-place. Each day they thought they knew all the rocks and -pools by heart, yet every time they came again they found fresh ones. - -Very often, too, Mrs. Carlyon engaged John Lobb to row them along the -coast in his best boat, and they would land at some of the nice little -bays and coves and have their dinner or tea, and light a fire and boil -the kettle. - -[Illustration: “THEY WOULD LIGHT A FIRE AND BOIL THE KETTLE.”] - -The red bucket “Thomas” grew to look quite shabby with the hard -usage it had, and so many of its letters got knocked off that it was -difficult at last to know what the name was meant to be. Priscilla -had chosen a green bucket with “Mary” on it, as she could not get one -with her first name. The colour did not go very well with her blue -cloak, but she did not want to use them together very often, and when -she did she solved the difficulty by carrying the bucket underneath -the cloak. Sometimes they went for picnics on the Downs on the top -of the cliff, and one day when they were up there Priscilla saw Mr. -Winter, and, running up to him, brought him over and introduced him to -her mother. He seemed rather shy at first and not very happy, but the -next time they met him he came up to them of his own accord and talked -to them for a while, and as the days went on they even induced him to -join them at their picnic teas, and when he had done so once or twice -he seemed really to enjoy himself, and would ramble about with them for -quite a long time, saying little, but evidently interested in all they -said and did. - -Priscilla was his most constant companion. Geoffrey, at first -particularly, reminded him too painfully of his own dead boy, and he -himself reminded Loveday of the mortifying occasion when he had locked -her up, a prisoner. As time went on they often talked of the escapade, -and laughed about it, but Loveday could not at first see any joke in -it, or quite throw off her awe of her captor, and preferred to race and -tear about with Geoffrey, sharing his dangers and adventures. - -Often when Priscilla was tired she would find her new old friend by her -side, and with his arm to lean on they would saunter on slowly together -and talk and talk. Such long conversations they had, though it was -generally Priscilla who was the talker, but that was because he asked -her so many questions about their home, and their games, and their -lessons, and their doings, and he seemed so interested in every little -thing that Priscilla told him that she thought perhaps it helped him to -feel more cheerful and forget his own troubles. So she chattered on to -him very willingly. - -She did not have all the talk to herself, though, for sometimes he -would tell her stories of the time when he was a boy, and all sorts of -other interesting tales; but her mother had told her so seriously never -to ask him questions, or speak of anything that would be likely to -arouse sad memories, that poor Priscilla was not quite certain what she -might say, and what she must not, and really felt easier when she was -telling him of their own little doings. - -One day she told him all about Lady Carey and the cloaks, and he -seemed very interested. “Is that the pretty cloak I first saw you in?” -he asked; and when Priscilla said, “Yes, it was,” he said, “A very -sensible clever woman she must be to make such a charming garment. I -have never seen any I like so much.” - -Another day she told him about Miss Potts, and what an interesting -person she was, and how she was an “only”; so she, Priscilla, tried to -be a sort of sister to her, and went quite often to see her. - -“I should like to know Miss Potts,” he said, and Priscilla knew that he -was thinking of the story she had blurted out to him so thoughtlessly -that first day. - -“I wish you could,” she said eagerly. “Oh, I wish you would come to -Trelint and see her, and see our house, and Betsy and--everything. I am -sure you would like it. Miss Potts loves Trelint. She told me she felt -at home there at once, and ever so happy, and she has never wanted to -go anywhere else since. I am sure you would love Trelint if you came.” - -“I feel sure I should,” said Mr. Winter. “Perhaps I will come some day. -I dare say I shall; in fact, I have been thinking about it a good deal.” - -“Oh, have you? How lovely!” cried Priscilla, really pleased. “It won’t -seem so hard to leave Porthcallis now.” - -For the last days had come, and the end of the visit was very near. -Already there had been talk of trains, and some farewell visits had -been paid, and they all felt very sad, for they loved the little place. - -“Of course it isn’t as fine in some ways as Porthcallis,” she remarked, -after a short pause, beginning to wonder if she had painted home too -glowingly, and so prepared a disappointment for a new-comer to the -place. “There is no”--she had nearly added “sea there,” but checked -herself just in time--“nothing, I mean, _very famous_, like ruins, and -tombs, and castles, and things, but it is very--very homey.” - -“I am not particularly fond of sight-seeing,” said Mr. Winter, “and I -would prefer a home to a ruin. It seems to me I have been living in the -latter too long already,” he added, half to himself. “Now let us go and -find your mother. I want to ask her to bring you all to tea with me at -my house to-morrow. I hope you will not mind giving up a part of your -last whole day. Would you like to come, little one?” - -For a moment Priscilla was speechless. Even she, child as she was, -understood a little what this invitation must have cost him. But she -quickly recovered herself and remembered her manners. - -“Oh, I would love to!” she cried warmly; “we all would, I know.” But -she added in her own sedate little way: “Won’t we be a great trouble to -you?” - -Mr. Winter smiled. - -“Not a trouble, child.” - -They soon overtook Mrs. Carlyon, who gladly agreed to the plan, and -thanked Mr. Winter warmly, and soon after that they parted. - - * * * * * - -It was with very varied feelings that they all climbed the cliff the -next day to Mr. Winter’s home, and walked slowly up the pebbled path. -Geoffrey was full of curiosity and interest; Loveday was a little shy -of again entering her prison, but interested too; Mrs. Carlyon was very -thankful, and in her heart very glad, for it seemed to her that it -might be the beginning of brighter, happier days for the poor, lonely, -sad old man; Priscilla, too, dimly felt the same thing, and she wanted, -oh, so much! that he should be less sad. - -Mrs. Tucker let them in, glum as usual, but more civil in manner. - -“Will you please to walk inside and sit down,” she said, showing them -into a little bare room where there was no sign of any preparations for -tea, no flowers, nor even chairs enough for them all. “The master will -be here in a moment.” - -And in less than a moment he came in. - -As soon as their eyes fell on him standing in the doorway, two at -least of them--Priscilla and her mother--noticed a change in him; they -could not have said whether they saw or felt it, or in what the change -lay, and when he came forward to shake hands he seemed only a little -quieter, a little more sad than usual, and somewhat more absent-minded. -He welcomed them very cordially, but after the first greetings a -silence fell, then: - -“Will you come this way?” he said, rising and moving towards the -door. He spoke in a nervous, strained manner. “I have had tea laid -in the--the drawing-room. It is a room I do not often use.” As they -rose to follow him he laid his hand on Priscilla’s shoulder. “May Miss -Priscilla and I lead the way?” he asked. - -It was a curiously silent little procession that straggled from the -one room to the other--Mrs. Carlyon full of surmise as to what was to -follow, Geoffrey and Loveday too absorbed in interest at being in the -house of mystery, as they had always considered it, to notice anything -unusual. - -But as soon as the drawing-room door was opened, Mrs. Carlyon began -to understand. “This is one of the closed rooms, and for us he has at -last opened it,” she thought; and once more a deep pang of tender pity -filled her heart. - -Mr. Winter walked in without looking or speaking; Priscilla walked -beside him, her hand held fast in his, and even through all her -wonderment she noticed how his hand trembled. Straight across the room -they went, and right up to the windows where the blinds were still fast -drawn. “I want you to be the first to draw these up,” he said gently, -and Priscilla, a little nervously, but very gladly, pulled the cords, -and let in the beautiful air and sunlight. - -For a moment they stood there, Priscilla gazing with wide eyes at -the glorious view which spread before her, glorious, yet almost -awe-inspiring; Mr. Winter looking down at her, as though he could not -yet force himself to let his eyes rest on what he had so long shut out. -He turned away at last, and leaving her standing there alone, went -over to Mrs. Carlyon, who was lingering in the doorway trying to keep -back her tears. - -“Forgive an old man’s sentiment,” he said to her, with his gentle sad -smile; “as she was the first to let sunshine into my life again, I -wanted her to be the first to let it into my house too.” - -“I know, I understand,” said Mrs. Carlyon softly; “you are very brave.” - -Then Loveday, with a cry of joy, relieved the tension of the moment, -and every one felt grateful to the unconscious little maiden. - -“O mummy!” she cried excitedly, “mummy! do look! Here is a dear dinky -little cup with ‘Loveday’ on it. Then they do paint ‘Loveday’ on things -sometimes, and that woman told a story when she said they didn’t.” - -Mr. Winter turned to her with a pleased smile. - -“That was my Grannie’s cup,” he said, “made on purpose for her, and -that was her name; and as you are the only other Loveday I have ever -known, I am going to ask you to use it, and after that to accept it -from me as a little keepsake from the ogre to the pisky.” - -At which Loveday gasped and squealed again more delightedly than ever, -and from that moment forgave him for her humiliation, even going so far -as to admit him as one of her very best friends. - -It was a very pleasant tea that, and one none of them ever forgot, -though it was not entirely joyous, owing to the many memories called -up, and the thought of the parting on the morrow, which was hanging -over them all. - -But when the next morning came and the actual parting, the spirits -of most of them were not as low as they had thought they would be, -for they were going home, and that is always pleasant, and there was -the journey and the drive. And what an exciting, bustling time it -was, packing up the last things and getting off. The children had so -many more treasures too--buckets and spades, shells and pebbles and -seaweeds; and Loveday had her tea-cup too, which had to be packed with -special care in Mrs. Carlyon’s best hat-box. And then, when at last -they reached the wind-swept station, and Priscilla in her blue cloak, -and Loveday in her red one, were standing on the platform, who should -appear but Mr. Winter himself to see them off! - -“I thought I might be of some use in helping you,” he said kindly. “Is -there anything I can do? Tell me, please, if there is.” - -“Oh, will you please hold this?” gasped Loveday eagerly, pointing to -the hat-box which she and Priscilla were guarding. “My cup is in it, -and I am so afraid some one will run into us and joggle it.” - -Mr. Winter took the box at once into his care, and then turned to -help their mother, and when the train came in he found them a nice -comfortable compartment all to themselves, and having first placed the -precious hat-box in safety, and arranged a dozen other things in the -rack, he then helped in Priscilla and Loveday and Mrs. Carlyon. - -“Good-bye,” he said, when at last the whistle blew to warn them they -were about to start. “Good-bye, good-bye, children, and I hope you will -write to me sometimes, and tell me what you are doing, and how Miss -Potts gets on, for I shall be very lonely without you,” and he stepped -quietly out of the carriage as though half ashamed of having said so -much; and the last thing they saw as they rolled away was Mr. Winter -standing alone on the little bare platform, the wind blowing his white -hair about as he waved his hat to them. - -“I don’t know how we should ever have got off without Mr. Winter,” said -Nurse, who had taken a great liking to him. - -“Nor I; nor how we shall get on at home without him,” said Mrs. Carlyon -gravely; “I think he will have to come to Trelint.” - -“So do I,” sighed Priscilla. “I am sure he will be very lonely without -us. I must write to him very often, to cheer him up.” - -And Priscilla did. Sometimes it was difficult. She felt disinclined, -or she thought there was nothing to say, or she could not spell the -words she wanted to use, but she very seldom failed altogether, and she -would not have done so at all, had she known how her funny little badly -written letters were prized by her old friend. - -One day there came a letter from Mr. Winter which sent Priscilla -dancing joyously through the house. - -“My dear Scylla,” it said--Mr. Winter had called her “Scylla,” because -he said that as the little blue flower was the first to push its way -through the hard frosty ground, so she had been the first to push her -way through his frosty nature:-- - - “MY DEAR SCYLLA,--Your last letter interested me much, and what you - told me of the old house next to Miss Potts made me so anxious to see - it that I have determined to come over to Trelint for a few days to - have a look at it; so be sure that no one else takes it first. The - front of it so close to the street that I can see your house from - it, sounds very enticing, and the old-fashioned garden at the back - sounds as if it was made on purpose for me; and if I like it as much - as I think I shall from what you say, I should not be surprised if, - like Miss Potts herself, I felt so at home in Trelint I should never - want to leave it again, and then you would be relieved of the task of - writing to your dull old friend, - - MATTHEW WINTER.” - -A very few days later, Mr. Winter did come to Trelint, and Mrs. Carlyon -and the children went with him to inspect the comfortable, roomy old -house which stood beside Miss Potts’ little old-fashioned house and -shop, without humbling hers or losing its own dignity. And everything -in the house seemed right; and the garden was beautiful, large, and -old, and well-filled with every kind of flower that one loves best, and -many kinds of fruits too. - -“I _must_ have this,” said Mr. Winter, and he spoke so eagerly and -gaily it was a treat to hear him. “I can just imagine you children -racing about here and playing all sorts of games. You will let them -come, won’t you, Mrs. Carlyon?” - -“Oh, indeed, yes,” she cried laughingly; “they will come--the question -is, will they go? You must see to it that they do, Mr. Winter. I am -sure they will always be wanting to be here.” - -“It really is a dear old house, and the garden is lovely,” she said -afterwards to her husband; “but I believe he would have taken it if -it had been the most wretched and inconvenient place imaginable, he -seemed so determined to come here.” - - * * * * * - -“And it all came,” said Loveday solemnly, when they were talking over -the wonderful event amongst themselves--“it all came about through my -being a pisky in his garden.” - -“Or a prisoner in his house,” jeered Geoffrey, to tease her. - -“It really began further back than either,” said Priscilla, “for if -it hadn’t been for our accident Loveday wouldn’t have been sent to -Porthcallis, and so----” - -“So really you have me to thank for it all,” cried Geoffrey, “for I put -up the swing.” - -“And if you had put it up properly it wouldn’t have broken, and there -might not have been any accident,” agreed Priscilla. “But----” - -“No,” said Loveday, who had been cogitating quietly for some time, -“it was through me, after all; for if Mrs. Wall hadn’t been so long -changing her frock, and kept me waiting so, I should have been in -the swing too” (excitedly); “and then I should have fallen out, and -p’r’aps been killed, and then I wouldn’t have gone to Porthcallis, and -you” (growing more and more eager) “wouldn’t any of you have known Mr. -Winter, so you see ’twas through me, after all.” And to her immense -surprise she was for once allowed to have the last word. - - -Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. 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