a slide down we
stopped short without being driven on again by our companion, and the
game was voted a bore.

"'Tisn't as if there were a couple of sailors at the top with a capstan,
to haul you up again when you've slid down," said Bob.

"Ah, I wish there were!" cried Bigley, "I get so tired."

"No rope would pull you up; you're too heavy," sneered Bob. "Never
mind, Sep, let's do something else. The clatter streams ain't half so
slippery as they used to be. I s'pose we may do something else here
though it is your father's place?"

"Don't be so disagreeable," I cried.

"Who's disagreeable?" he retorted. "I didn't make the stones stick and
old Bigley come down squelch on us, did I?"

"Oh, if you want to quarrel, Bob, we may as well go home," I said.

"There, just hark at him, Big! Quarrel! Just as if I wanted to
quarrel. There, I shall go."

"No, no, don't go, Bob," I cried.

"No, no, don't go, Bob," chimed in Big. "It's holidays now, and we can
get up a row when we're at school."

The force of this, and its being waste of time now the long-expected
holidays had come, made an impression on Bob, who sat down and began
sending rounded pieces of slate skimming through the air towards the
little stream.

"Didn't I tell you I didn't want to quarrel," he grumbled out. "I ain't
so fond of--there, you chaps couldn't do that."

"Ha! Ha! Couldn't we?" I cried, as a stone he threw went plash into
the stream, and I jerked a piece of slate so far that it went right
over.

This made Bob jump up, and, as there was plenty of ammunition, the old
contention was forgotten in the new, Bigley Uggleston joining in and
helping us throw stones till we grew tired, when we looked round for
something fresh to do.

"Let's climb right to the top of Bogle's Beacon," I said, as my eyes lit
upon the highest crags at our side of the ravine.

"Oh, what's the good?" said Bigley. "It'll make us so hot."

"Get out, you great lazy fellow," cried Bob, whose lips had been apart
to oppose my plan; but as soon as Bigley took the other side he was all
eagerness to go.

"Oh, all right then," said Bigley. "I don't mind. If you're going I
shall come too; but wait a minute."

As he spoke he set off at a trot down the slope, and as we two threw
ourselves down to watch him, we saw him run on and on till he reached
the smuggler's cottage, and go round to the long low slate-roofed shed
where his father kept his odds and ends of boa