ddish-golden hair; almost too pretty to be a boy, Reggie thought;
while Tricksy said to herself that he looked rather "nice."'

After greeting the grown-up folk, the new-comers turned to encounter
Tricksy's solemn, dark eyes and Reggie's bright, twinkling ones.
Tricksy shook hands very shyly, and Reggie a little stiffly; then the
visitors were taken upstairs to prepare for lunch.

Tricksy turned to Reggie, whose countenance wore a non-committal
expression; then she looked at Allan and heaved a little sigh.

'What do you think of them, Tricksy?' inquired Allan.

'Well, I think the little one looks rather nice, but the other is a
little proud.'

'Do you think they'd care about our Pirates' Island, and all that?'
asked Reggie doubtfully.

'Of course they would. They're no end of a good sort. Hush, they're
coming downstairs again.'

'Are you tired after the steamer?' Allan asked his guest during lunch.

'A bit, not very,' replied the elder lad, whose name was Harry. 'Feel
a bit as though the floor was rocking.'

'You'll feel like that until you've had a night's rest, anyway,' said
Allan. 'Are you too tired to do anything this afternoon?'

'Not at all,' answered his friend. 'Gerald, you're game to do
something after lunch, aren't you?'

His brother, who had been trying to make a conversation with Reggie,
while Tricksy sat shyly on his other side, looked up with a smile.

'The steamer went close under some fine rocks, not far from the
village,' he said; 'very high ones, with birds sitting in rows, all the
way up, and making an awful screaming.'

'Yes,' said Allan, 'those are the Skegness Cliffs, a great
nesting-place of the birds. We'll take you there after lunch, if it's
not too far.'

The boys looked pleased, and as soon as freed from the restraint of
their elders' presence they ran to fetch their caps and demanded to be
taken to the rocks.

'We had better not go so soon, I think,' said Allan. 'We are expecting
Hamish and Marjorie, our friends from Corranmore, and we'll ask them to
go with us. There's a jolly burn that runs quite near the house;
suppose we go and fish in it until they come.'

Fishing-tackle was found for the entire party, and they proceeded to
the banks of the burn, which trickled down the hill-side and across a
meadow, widening into little pools fringed with ragged-robin and queen
o' the meadow; and finally falling in a little cascade down to the
shore.

'What a fine dog this