a wink of sleep. He got up, of course, and looked from
the window.

The day was dreaming grandly. The sky was pretty clear in front, and
full of sparkles of light, for the stars were kept in the background by
the moon, which was down a little towards the west. She had sunk below
the top of a huge towering cloud, the edges of whose jags and pinnacles
she bordered with a line of silvery light. Now this cloud rose into the
sky from just behind the ruins, and looking a good deal like upheaved
towers and spires, made Willie think within himself what a grand place
the priory must have been, when its roofs and turrets rose up into the
sky.

"They say a lot of people lived in it then!" he thought with himself as
he stood gazing at the cloud.

Suddenly he gave a great jump, and clapped his hands so loud that he
woke his father.

"Is anything the matter, my boy?" he asked, opening Willie's door, and
peeping in.

"No, papa, nothing," answered Willie. "Only something that came into my
head with a great bounce!"

"Ah!--Where did it come from, Willie?"

"Out of that cloud there. Isn't it a grand one?"

"Grand enough certainly to put many thoughts into a body's head, Willie.
What did it put into yours?"

"Please, I would rather not tell just yet," answered Willie, "--if you
don't mind, father."

"Not a bit, my boy. Tell me just when you please, or don't tell me at
all. I should like to hear it, but only at your pleasure, Willie."

"Thank you, father. I do want to tell you, you know, but not just yet."

"Very well, my boy. Now go to bed, and sleep may better the thought
before the morning."

Willie soon fell asleep now, for he believed he had found what he
wanted.

He was up earlier than usual the next morning, and out in the garden.

"Surely," he said to himself, "those ruins, which once held so many
monks, might manage even yet to find room for me!"

He went wandering about amongst them, like an undecided young bird
looking for the very best possible spot to build its nest in. The spot
Willie sought was that which would require the least labour and least
material to make it into a room.

Before he heard the voice of Tibby, calling him to come to his porridge,
he had fixed upon one; and in the following chapter I will tell you what
led him to choose it. All the time between morning and afternoon school,
he spent in the same place; and when he came home in the evening, he
was accompanied by Mr Spelman, who went