heigh-ho! and gathered
them all....

"The apples are gathered, and laid on the shelf, Oh! heigh-ho! and laid
on the shelf; If you want any more, you must sing for yourself, Oh!
heigh-ho! and sing for yourself."

Her small, high voice came to us in trills and spurts, as the wind let
it, like the singing of a skylark lost in the sky. Pearse went up to her
and whispered something. I caught a glimpse of her face like a startled
wild creature's; shrinking, tossing her hair, laughing, all in the same
breath. She wouldn't sing again, but crouched in the bows with her chin
on her hands, and the sun falling on one cheek, round, velvety, red as a
peach....

We passed Dartmouth, and half an hour later put into a little wooded bay.
On a low reddish cliff was a house hedged round by pine-trees. A bit of
broken jetty ran out from the bottom of the cliff. We hooked on to this,
and landed. An ancient, fish-like man came slouching down and took
charge of the cutter. Pearse led us towards the house, Pasiance
following mortally shy all of a sudden.

The house had a dark, overhanging thatch of the rush reeds that grow in
the marshes hereabouts; I remember nothing else remarkable. It was
neither old, nor new; neither beautiful, nor exactly ugly; neither clean,
nor entirely squalid; it perched there with all its windows over the sea,
turning its back contemptuously on the land.

Seated in a kind of porch, beside an immense telescope, was a very old
man in a panama hat, with a rattan cane. His pure-white beard and
moustache, and almost black eyebrows, gave a very singular, piercing look
to his little, restless, dark-grey eyes; all over his mahogany cheeks and
neck was a network of fine wrinkles. He sat quite upright, in the full
sun, hardly blinking.

"Dad!" said Zachary, "this is Pasiance Voisey." The old man turned his
eyes on her and muttered, "How do you do, ma'am?" then took no further
notice. And Pasiance, who seemed to resent this, soon slipped away and
went wandering about amongst the pines. An old woman brought some plates
and bottles and laid them casually on a table; and we sat round the
figure of old Captain Pearse without a word, as if we were all under a
spell.

Before lunch there was a little scene between Zachary Pearse and Dan, as
to which of them should summon Pasiance. It ended in both going, and
coming back without her. She did not want any lunch, would stay where
she was amongst the pines.

For lu