y for Rupert, they came to the top of a small
rising ground, and beheld a farmhouse at about a hundred yards before
them. Rupert whistled long and loud and shrill, and two or three of
the young ladies exclaimed, 'Is this Whistlefar Castle?'

'It is only enchanted,' said Elizabeth; 'clear away the mist of
incredulity from your eyes, and behold keep, drawbridge, tower and
battlement, and loop-hole grates where captives weep.'

It cannot be denied that the young party were a little disappointed by
the aspect of the renowned Whistlefar, but they did ample justice to
all that was to be seen; a few yards of very thick stone wall in the
court, a coat of arms carved upon a stone built into the wall upside
down, and the well-turned arch of the door-way. Some, putting on Don
Quixote's eyes for the occasion, saw helmets in milk-pails, dungeons in
cellars, battle-axes in bill-hooks, and shields in pewter-plates,
called the baby in its cradle the sleeping Princess, agreed that the
shield must have been reversed by order of the palmer, and that one of
the cows was the mischievous knight's cream-coloured donkey; so that
laughter happily supplied the place of learned lore.

On the way home the party were not quite so merry, although Helen was
unusually agreeable, and enjoyed a very pleasant conversation with
Rupert and Anne, who, she was pleased to find, really thought her worth
talking to. Elizabeth was occupied with Dora, who was tired, and
wanted to be cheered and amused. She did not however forget her
bulrushes, and when they came in sight of them, she ran forwards to
claim Rupert's promise of gathering some for her and her little brother
and sister. This was a service of difficulty, for some of the
bulrushes grew in the water, and others on deceitful ground, where a
pool appeared wherever Rupert set his foot. With two or three strides
and leaps, however, he reached a little dry island, covered with a tuft
of sedges, in the midst of the marsh, and was reaching some of the
bulrushes with the hook of Anne's parasol, when he suddenly cried out,
'Hollo, what have we here?'

'What?' said some of the girls.

'A dead dog, I believe,' said Rupert.

'Oh! let me see,' cried Harriet, advancing cautiously over the morass.

'Are you curious in such matters. Miss Hazleby?' said Rupert, laughing,
as Harriet came splashing towards him through the wet, holding up her
frock with one hand, and stretching out the other to him, to be helpe