the others will come after us," said Jeanne,
rather anxiously. But just as she uttered the words a rather shrill crow
made both Hugh and her stop short and look up to the top. They saw
Houpet and the others standing round the edge of the hole. Houpet gave
another crow, in which the two chickens joined him, and then suddenly
the stone was shut down--the two children found themselves alone in this
strange place, leading to they knew not where! Jeanne gave a little
cry--Hugh, too, for a moment was rather startled, but he soon recovered
himself.

"Jeanne," he said, "it must be all right. I don't think we need be
frightened. See, it is quite light! The light comes up from below--down
there it must be quite bright and cheerful. Give me your hand--if we go
down sideways--so--we can hold each other's hands all the way."

So, in a rather queer fashion, they clambered down the long staircase.
By the time they got to its end they were really quite tired of turning
round and round so many times. But now the view before them was so
pleasant that they forgot all their troubles.

They had found a little door at the foot of the stair, which opened
easily. They passed through it, and there lay before them a beautiful
expanse of water surrounded by hills; the door which had closed behind
them seemed on this side to have been cut out of the turf of the hill,
and was all but invisible. It was light, as Hugh had said, but not with
the light of either sun or moon; a soft radiance was over everything,
but whence it came they could not tell. The hills on each side of the
water, which was more like a calmly flowing river than a lake, prevented
their seeing very far, but close to the shore by which they stood a
little boat was moored--a little boat with seats for two, and one light
pair of oars.

"Oh, how lovely!" said Jeanne. "It is even nicer than the carriage. Get
in, Hugh, and let us row down the river. The boat must be on purpose for
us."

They were soon settled in it, and Hugh, though he had only rowed once or
twice before in his life, found it very easy and pleasant, and they went
over the water swiftly and smoothly. After a while the hills approached
more nearly, gradually the broad river dwindled to a mere stream, so
narrow and small at last, that even their tiny boat could go no farther.
Hugh was forced to leave off rowing.

"I suppose we are meant to go on shore here," he said. "The boat won't
go any farther, any way."

Jean