read. She says it's bad for your eyes, when you're
lying down. Unless I do something quick, I believe she'll turn me into
a--oh! I don't know what,' and she stopped, quite out of breath.

'A frog,' said Peterkin. He had enchanted frogs on the brain just then,
I believe.

'No,' said Margaret, 'that wouldn't be so bad, for I'd be able to jump
about, and there's nothing I love as much as jumping about, especially
in water,' and her eyes sparkled with a sort of mischief which I had
seen in them once or twice before. 'No, it would be something much
horrider--a dormouse, perhaps. I should hate to be a dormouse.

'You shan't be changed into a dormouse or--or _anything_,' said
Peterkin, with a burst of indignation.

'Thank you, Perkins,' Margaret replied; 'but please go now and
remember--Wednesday.'

We ran off, and though we thought we had only been a minute or two at
Rock Terrace, after all we were not home much too early.

'We must be careful on Wednesday,' I said. 'I'm afraid my watch is
rather slow.'

[Illustration: WE HAD NO DIFFICULTY IN FINDING HER BATH-CHAIR.--p. 108.]

'Dinner isn't always quite so pumptual on Wednesdays,' said Pete, 'with
its being a half-holiday, you know.'

It turned out right enough on Wednesday.

Considering what a little girl she was then--only eight and a
bit--Margaret was very clever with her plans and settlings, as we have
often told her since. I daresay it was with her having lived so much
alone, and read so many story-books, and made up stories for herself
too, as she often did, though we didn't know that then.

We had no difficulty in finding her bath-chair, and the man took it
quite naturally that she should have some friends, and, of course, made
no objection to our walking beside her and talking to her. He was a very
nice kind sort of a man, though he scarcely ever spoke. Perhaps he had
children of his own, and was glad for Margaret to be amused. He took
great care of the chair, over the crossing the road and the turnings,
and no doubt he had been told to be extra careful, but as Miss Bogle had
no idea that Margaret knew a creature in the place I don't suppose 'the
witch' had ever thought of telling him that he was not to let any one
speak to her.

It was a very fine day--a sort of November summer, and when you were in
the full sunshine it really felt quite hot. There were bath-chairs
standing still, for the people in them to enjoy the warmth and to stare
out at the sea.