eat chimney-place
on a bed of white wood ashes. Kneeling in the faint glow of it they drew
on and laced their boots, then unlatched the kitchen window and dropped
out upon the snow.

Archelaus Libby had been given a garret over the cider house, where he
slept or studied in a perpetual odour of dried russet apples and Spanish
onions. He was awake and dressed, and welcomed the children gaily by the
light of a tallow candle. His simple mind found nothing to wonder at in
this nocturnal visit. Was not the Aurora Borealis performing in all its
splendour? Then naturally the whole world must be awake with him and
excited.

He showed Myra its wonders through the telescope, discoursing on them with
glee.

"But what does it _mean _?" she asked.

He told her how it was caused, and how a clever man had once made a toy
with a bright lamp, a globe sprinkled with ground glass, and the vapour of
a sponge pressed on hot iron, repeating the phenomenon on a tiny scale.
"We will try it ourselves to-morrow," he promised.

The ribbons of light were playing hide-and-seek behind a distant wooded
hill, now and again so vividly that its outline stood up clear against
them.

"That will be the moors above Damelioc," said Archelaus. "If you watch
through the glass, you will see the monument there--the one on the
battle-field, you know. I saw it, just now, plain as plain. And once I
thought I saw the taller monument, over Bodmin."

"That's where they've put Uncle Vro in gaol."

"I was thinking of him just now, Miss Myra. It will be cold for him
to-night over there in his cell."

"I wonder if Lady Killiow knows," said Myra musingly.

"They were talking about it in the kitchen to-night," said Archelaus,
"and all agreed that she knew naught about it. Miss Susannah was saying
that Peter Benny had been across here, bold as a lion, this afternoon, and
spoke up to your uncle about it. Their voices were so loud that from the
great parlour she heard every word; and Mr. Benny was threatening to tell
Lady Killiow what he was doing in her name, and, what's more, to write up
to his brother and get the whole story in the London papers."

"But _has_ he told her?"

Clem caught his sister suddenly by the arm. The child was shaking from
head to foot. "Peter Benny has not told her! Come away, Myra, and leave
Archelaus to his telescope. I want you, back at the house!"

"Why, whatever has taken you?" she asked, believing him ill. Having
w