sing them now, she was glad, she was so
free; but she sang the notes without the words, as the cock-o-veets do.
Singing and jumping all the way, she went back, and took a sharp stone,
and cut at the root of a kippersol, and got out a large piece, as long
as her arm, and sat to chew it. Two conies came out on the rock above
her head and peeped at her. She held them out a piece, but they did not
want it, and ran away.

It was very delicious to her. Kippersol is like raw quince, when it is
very green; but she liked it. When good food is thrown at you by
other people, strange to say, it is very bitter; but whatever you find
yourself is sweet!

When she had finished she dug out another piece, and went to look for
a pantry to put it in. At the top of a heap of rocks up which she
clambered she found that some large stones stood apart but met at the
top, making a room.

"Oh, this is my little home!" she said.

At the top and all round it was closed, only in the front it was open.
There was a beautiful shelf in the wall for the kippersol, and she
scrambled down again. She brought a great bunch of prickly pear, and
stuck it in a crevice before the door, and hung wild asparagus over it,
till it looked as though it grew there. No one could see that there was
a room there, for she left only a tiny opening, and hung a branch of
feathery asparagus over it. Then she crept in to see how it looked.
There was a glorious soft green light. Then she went out and picked some
of those purple little ground flowers--you know them--those that keep
their faces close to the ground, but when you turn them up and look at
them they are deep blue eyes looking into yours! She took them with a
little earth, and put them in the crevices between the rocks; and so
the room was quite furnished. Afterwards she went down to the river and
brought her arms full of willow, and made a lovely bed; and, because the
weather was very hot, she lay down to rest upon it.

She went to sleep soon, and slept long, for she was very weak. Late in
the afternoon she was awakened by a few cold drops falling on her face.
She sat up. A great and fierce thunderstorm had been raging, and a
few of the cool drops had fallen through the crevice in the rocks. She
pushed the asparagus branch aside, and looked out, with her little hands
folded about her knees. She heard the thunder rolling, and saw the red
torrents rush among the stones on their way to the river. She heard the
roar