a bad road."

There was an explosion of laughter at this.

"But you said so, papa," Beth remonstrated indignantly.

"My dear child, I said just the reverse."

"What's the reverse?" said Beth, picturing another personality.

"There now, that will do," Mrs. Caldwell interposed. "Little bodies
must be seen and not heard."

Mr. Macbean stroked Beth's head--"There is something in here, I
expect," he observed.

"Not much, I'm afraid," Mrs. Caldwell answered. "We've hardly been
able to teach her anything."

"Ah!" Mr. Macbean ejaculated, reflecting on the specimen he had heard
of the method pursued. "You must let me see what _I_ can do."

CHAPTER V

In a few days all the bustle of getting into the new house began. The
furniture arrived in irregular batches. Some of it came and some of it
did not come. When a box was opened there was nothing that was wanted
in it, only things that did not go together, and mamma was worried,
and papa was cross.

The workpeople were wild and ignorant, and only trustworthy as long as
they were watched. They were unaccustomed to the most ordinary comforts
of civilised life, particularly in the way of furniture. When the family
arrived at the house one morning, they found Mrs. Caldwell's wardrobe,
mahogany drawers, and other articles of bedroom furniture, set up in
conspicuous positions in the sitting-room, and the carpenter was much
ruffled when he was ordered to take them upstairs.

"Shure it's mad they are," he remonstrated to one of the servants, "to
have sich foine things put in a bedroom where nobody'll see thim."

The men came up from the coastguard station to scrape the walls, and
Ellis, the petty officer, used the bread-knife, and broke it, and papa
bawled at him. Beth was sorry for Ellis.

The house was built of stone, and very damp. There was a great deal of
space in it, but little accommodation. On the ground-floor were a huge
hall, kitchen, pantry and sitting-room, all flagged. The sitting-room
was the only one in the house, and had to be used as dining-room and
drawing-room, but it was large enough for that and to spare. There was
a big yard and a big garden too, and Riley was in the stable, and
Biddy and Anne in the kitchen, and Kitty in the nursery. This increase
of establishment, which meant so much to the parents, was accepted as
a matter of course by the children.

Kitty told Riley and Biddy and Anne about what Beth had seen on
Gallows Hill, and they oft