r with a wide stretch of sea. A narrow path led
steeply by a series of steps through the wood, a delightful, cool,
shady place, with soft moss spreading like a green carpet underfoot,
and closely-interlacing boughs shutting out the sunlight overhead.
Trails of late honeysuckle still hung in sweet-scented festoons from
the undergrowth, and an occasional squirrel might be seen whisking his
bushy tail round the bole of an oak tree in a quest for early acorns.
There was an interesting little pool, too, where a number of young
frogs were practising swimming; and the children thought they saw an
otter, but they could not be quite sure, for it scurried off so
quickly up the bank that they had not the chance to get more than a
glimpse of it. The hazel bushes were covered with nuts, a few of which
already contained kernels, and clumps of ferns grew luxuriantly under
the shadow of the trees.

Pleasant as it was in the wood, it was even more enjoyable when they
reached the top of the hill, and seating themselves upon a thick patch
of heather, looked down the other side of the Scar over the rich
undulating silvan slope, where among great round boulders they caught
the glint of a stream, and heard in the distance the rushing noise of a
waterfall. At the foot of the incline, in a narrow valley between the
Scar and the cliffs which bounded the sea, rose the gray-brown stone
roof of a quaint old Elizabethan house. The richly-carved timbers, the
wide mullioned windows, and the ornamental gables were singularly fine,
and told of the time when those who built put an artistic pride into
their work, and thought no detail too unimportant to be well carried
out. The south side was covered with a glorious purple clematis, which
hung in rich masses round the pillars of a veranda below, and even from
the distance the flaming scarlet of the Scotch nasturtium clothing the
porch arrested the eyes by its brilliant contrast with the delicate
tea-roses that framed the windows.

"What a splendid place!" cried Belle, glancing beyond the twisted
chimneys to where the smooth green lawns and gay beds of a garden peeped
from between the trees of the shrubbery. "Just look at the beautiful
conservatories and greenhouses, and such stables! There's a tennis lawn
on the other side of the flagstaff, and a carriage drive leading down
towards the road. It's the nicest house I've seen anywhere about
Silversands. I wonder to whom it belongs, and what it's called."