ht and left, with a
low, humming noise, which was the treble, in Nature's music, to the
soft, low bass which came in a deep whisper from over the cliff to the
right. And as the boys drew in long, deep draughts of the pure, fresh
air which bathed their island home, their eyes were full of that happy
light which spoke volumes of how they were in the full tide of true
enjoyment of life in their brightest days.

They could not have expressed what they felt--perhaps they were
unconscious of the fact: that knowledge was only to come later on, in
the lookings-back of maturity; but they knew that the moor about them
seemed beautiful, and there was a keen enjoyment of everything upon
which their eyes rested, whether it was the purple and golden-green
slope, or the wondrous lights upon the ever-changing sea.

"Hi! look! There goes a mag," cried Mike, as one of the brilliantly
plumed birds rose suddenly from among some grey crags, and went off in
its peculiar flight, the white of its breast of the purest, and the sun
glancing from the purple, gold and green upon its wings and lengthy
tail.

"Hooray!--another--and another--and another!" cried Vince, who the next
moment passed from the enjoyment of the beautiful in nature to the
grotesque; for he covered his lips with one hand to smother a laugh, and
pointed with the other to a huge square patch of drugget laboriously
stitched upon the back of the solid-looking trousers to strengthen them
for sitting upon the thwart of a boat, a rock, or a bush of furze,
which, when so guarded against, makes a pleasantly elastic seat.

But Vince's companion did not find it so easy to control his mirth; for,
as he gazed at the gigantic trousers in motion along the slope, their
appearance seemed so comic, in conjunction with Vince's mirthful face,
that he burst into a hearty laugh.

Vince gave him a heavy punch in the ribs, which was intended to mean:
"Now you've done it: he won't let us come!"

But old Daygo did not look round; he only shook his head and shouted:

"Won't do, young Ladle--_Ladelle_: you're thinking about the tar water,
but you can't be so funny as he."

The boys exchanged glances, but did not try to explain; neither speaking
till, to their surprise, the man turned suddenly to his right, and made
for a huge buttress which ran out some fifty feet from the rugged edge
of the cliff and ended in a soft patch of sheep-nibbled, velvet grass,
upon which lay, partly buried, a couple