them, and they could see their little limbs
jerking like the limbs of frogs.

"It is good to be here," said Lady Elspeth enjoyably.

"It is very very good to be here. I am very glad we came," said Mrs.
Pixley, with a sigh that was not all sadness.

VIII

Many such days of sheer delight they had, and kept the dark cloud
resolutely below their horizon. They accommodated their activities to
the limited powers of the elders, and took them wherever it was
reasonably possible for them to go. They chartered a boat for the day,
and took them and all the luncheon-things round from Creux Harbour to
Grande Greve, subjecting Charles to long-unaccustomed labours at the
oar. In the same way they introduced them to Dixcart Bay, and
Derrible, and Greve de la Ville; and, choosing a fit day, they
circumnavigated the island again in three boat-loads, landing for
lunch on an even keel on Breniere, and penetrating into every
accessible cave they came to,--Mrs. Pixley enjoying the wonders in
fear and trembling, and breathing freely only when they were safely
out in the open once more. And Graeme and Margaret watched the
approximating of Hennie Penny and Charles with infinite delight. It
needed only a full understanding between these two to complete their
own great happiness.

But the dark cloud was there, though they might refuse to look at it,
and clouds below the horizon have a way of rising, especially dark
ones.

The post-office in Sark is a cottage, or the part of a cottage, turned
from private to public use. In former times the service was of a very
perfunctory character, Providence largely taking the place of
post-master while that official attended first to his fishing and then
to his duties, and any who had good and valid reason to expect a
letter came down to the mail-bag where it lay on the beach and went
through it for themselves.

The advent of visitors accustomed to more exact and business-like
methods, however, has done away with this Arcadian simplicity, and now
each day when the boat is in, all who prefer not to wait for the tardy
delivery at their own houses, collect gradually round the official
cottage, and in due course, and after the exercise of virtues, receive
their mail across the counter. And some tear their letters open at
once, regardless of spectators, and devour them on the spot, but the
wiser carry them home for private consumption. For one never knows for
certain what of heartbreak and disaster the