als, or
insects we met with during our rambles, drawing and painting as many of
them as we could.

"It will form a kind of naturalists' calendar," she said. "You must put
the dates to all your finds, and in years to come the books will prove
very interesting. Never mind whether the sketches are good or bad.
Persevere, and you will soon begin to improve, and the very effort to
copy a flower or a butterfly will impress its shape and colour upon your
minds in a way which nothing else could do."

We waxed very enthusiastic over these note-books, and there was quite a
keen competition between us as to which should contain the most records.
As we kept them for several years, we naturally had different entries
during the holidays we spent apart; and while I was able to sketch
gorgeous sea-anemones and madrepores which I found upon the shores of
south-country watering-places, Cathy would exult over the coral cups or
birds'-nest fungi for which she searched the woods in winter.

Somehow, after my friendship with the Winstanleys I realized that in
some subtle way the bond between my father and myself grew and
strengthened. In the years which I had spent at my aunt's, though I had
never ceased to love him, we had seemed in a very slight degree to have
drifted apart, but since my visit to Marshlands all the old spirit of
comradeship returned, and I felt he was even more to me than he had
ever been before. I think I must have unconsciously expressed this
feeling in my letters, for in his, too, I began to notice a change. He
wrote back to me more fully and freely, not as to a child, but as to a
friend, telling me his hopes and his difficulties, and the little
details of his lonely days, and asking almost wistfully for a full
record of all my doings. His gratitude to my kind friends knew no limit,
yet I think all the same he felt it hard that he should miss those years
of my life when I was receiving my most vivid impressions, and that he
must leave to others the care he would so gladly have bestowed upon me
himself.

CHAPTER VI

MISCHIEF

"When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war."

The celebrated Dr. Johnson is said to have advocated the theory, "When
you meet a boy, beat him! For either he has been in mischief, or he is
at present in mischief, or he is about to get into mischief!" In the
case of the two younger Winstanley boys, I fear this axiom was only too
true, since they sometimes allowed their lov