kirt was decidedly too short for me, and Lizzie's boots were
equally large and roomy; her stockings, moreover, were of thick,
home-knitted worsted, very hot and uncomfortable; but I was grateful for
anything in the circumstances, and would, I believe, have worn a pair of
sabots if they had been offered to me.

"We shall just have time for a walk, Cathy, after all," I said. "It
can't be very late yet, and we don't start home until six o'clock. Let
us go up that path through the glen that led on to the moors."

"Nay! Don't go there!" called out Mrs. Thompson, who happened to
overhear my remark just as we left the house. "There's a bull up on yon
moor as isn't safe at all. It do run folks sometimes. I thought ye had
been with the rest when I warned ye all. Keep in our own fields, and
ye'll be right enough, but don't go roamin' far away."

"Never mind," said Cathy. "We'll go back to the wood, at any rate, and
pick some more lilies, if there are any left."

We wandered slowly down the lane, gathering the dog-violets from the
banks, and having an unsuccessful hunt for birds' nests in the hedge.
The girls were all gone from the glen, only a few dropped flowers
remaining to show where they had been, and Cathy and I sauntered to the
little bridge to take a look at the scene of my catastrophe.

"You see how the handrail shakes about," I said, as I swung it out with
a touch. "And directly Ernestine took hold of it---- Oh, Cathy! I never
thought of Ernestine before! Don't you remember she went up the path
towards the moors? She can't know that the bull is there, and she's gone
quite alone!"

"Let us run after her," said Cathy. "Perhaps, after all, she mayn't have
walked very far, and we shall be in time to warn her."

"Quick! quick!" I cried. "Mrs. Thompson said the bull was so dangerous.
Oh! we _must_ stop her!"

We raced as fast as my heavy country boots would allow along the narrow
path through the wood, and over the stile into the meadow beyond,
calling "Ernestine" as we ran, but hearing no reply to our shouts. Among
the deep clover and up the steep hill-side we panted, following the
plain direction of the path, till, clambering over the irregular steps
which led across the high stone wall, we found ourselves on the open
moor at last.

"Oh, look! look!" cried Cathy, grasping my arm. "There it is!"

And she pointed as she spoke to the summit of a small hill close by,
where, outlined against the blue sky beyond, rose t