ly, and not until she spoke sharply did he
obey, and followed her unwillingly up the slope and then down into a
hollow that looked as if at one time it might have been the bed of some
great glacier.

The dog tried again to lead her away toward the sea, but she was
inexorable; and so he followed her along unwillingly, till, low down in
the hollow, as she turned suddenly by a pile of great blocks of
weather-worn and lichened stone, she came suddenly upon Dadd and Ram,
the former flat on his back, with his hat drawn-down over his eyes, the
latter busy with his knife cutting a rough stick smooth.

"How do, Miss Celia?" said Ram, showing his white teeth.

"Quite well, Ram. How is your head now?"

"Oh, it's all right agen now, miss. On'y a bit sore."

"You tumbled off the cliff, didn't you?"

"Off a bit of it," said Ram, grinning. "Not far."

"But how foolish of you! Mrs Shackle said you might have been killed."

"Yes, miss, but I wasn't."

"What were you doing in such a dangerous place?"

"Eh?" said Ram, changing colour; "what was I doing?"

"Yes, to run such a risk."

"I was--I was--"

Ram was completely taken aback, and sat staring, with his mouth open.

"Lookin' after a lost sheep," came in a deep growl from under Jemmy
Dadd's hat.

"Oh! And did you find it?"

"Yes; he fun' it," said the man, "but it were in a very dangerous place.
It's all dangerous 'long here; and Master Shackle wouldn't let young
Ram here go along these here clift slopes without me to take care on
him."

Ram grinned.

"And you take my advice, miss, don't you come 'bout here. We lost four
sheep last year, and come nigh losing the missuses best cow not long
ago. Didn't you hear?"

"Yes; old Mary told me, and Mrs Shackle mentioned it too."

"Ay," continued Jemmy, without removing his hat, "she fell slip-slap
into the sea."

"Poor thing."

"Ay, little missus; and, if I were you, I wouldn't come along top o'
they clifts at all. Grass is so short and slithery that, 'fore you
knows where you are, your feet goes from under you, and you can't stop
yourself, and over you goes. And that aren't the worst on it; most like
you're never found."

"Yes, 'tis very slippy, Miss Celia," said Ram, beginning to hack again
at his stick.

"I do not come here very often, Ram," she said, quietly. "It is a long
time since I came."

"Ay, and I wouldn't come no more, little missus," continued Jemmy, from
under his hat, "for if you did n