obbling cockle-shell any longer if you were to offer me a five-pound
note for every fish I caught."

But though my fishing efforts had turned out such a disastrous failure,
I found I got on much better with riding. Sometimes Cathy and I would go
out on Selim and Lady, with the squire or one of the boys on Captain,
and then I thought nothing could equal the joy of the brisk canter over
the moors, with the dogs racing behind us, and the screaming sea-birds
flying away in front. It was delightful to feel the quick motion of the
pony under me, as we rapidly covered the ground; and I improved so much
that Mr. Winstanley declared he would make a horsewoman of me in the
end, and that I should follow the hounds next time I came in the hunting
season.

Perhaps of all our expeditions I enjoyed our walks the most. To ramble
about the lanes and fields in search of nests or wild flowers was to me
always an endless pleasure. Finding that I had never picked wild
daffodils before, Cathy suggested one morning that we should walk to
Wyngates, where they grew so lavishly that the marshy meadows were
literally yellow with them. So with our baskets on our arms, and the new
Skye terrier for company, we started off in high spirits. Our way led up
a steep lane, the sloping banks of which were spangled with primroses
and celandine, while the rough-built walls at the top gave a hold to
trailing honeysuckle, ivy, and hazel bushes. It was a grand place for
birds' nests, and we made very slow progress as we poked about, peering
into every likely-looking spot. Cathy, through long experience, was much
more clever at discovering them than I, and while she found three
thrushes', a wren's, and two chaffinches', my efforts were only rewarded
by a solitary hedge-sparrow's. I had had a kodak for my last birthday
present, and I was very anxious to take some snap-shots of the young
birds in their nests, fired thereto by the beautiful nature photographs
I had seen in the illustrated papers. With a good deal of climbing and
difficulty I managed to secure various views of Mrs. Thrush at home,
Mrs. Chaffinch's nursery, and the five Miss Hedge-sparrows clamouring
for a meal. I used a whole spool of films over them, only to find, when
with Dick's assistance I developed them afterwards, that my little
camera was not intended for such near distances, and my pictures were so
hopelessly out of focus that they were utterly spoilt.

"It's an awful sell, and you've was