went for walks in the places where nurse had told them to me; and when
I sat in the nursery by the fire in the evenings I used to fancy nurse
was sitting in the other chair, and telling me some wonderful story in a
low voice, for fear anybody should be listening. But she used to like
best to tell me about things when we were right out in the country, far
from the house, because she said she was telling me such secrets, and
walls have ears. And if it was something more than ever secret, we had
to hide in brakes or woods; and I used to think it was such fun creeping
along a hedge, and going very softly, and then we would get behind the
bushes or run into the wood all of a sudden, when we were sure that none
was watching us; so we knew that we had our secrets quite all to
ourselves, and nobody else at all knew anything about them. Now and
then, when we had hidden ourselves as I have described, she used to show
me all sorts of odd things. One day, I remember, we were in a hazel
brake, overlooking the brook, and we were so snug and warm, as though it
was April; the sun was quite hot, and the leaves were just coming out.
Nurse said she would show me something funny that would make me laugh,
and then she showed me, as she said, how one could turn a whole house
upside down, without anybody being able to find out, and the pots and
pans would jump about, and the china would be broken, and the chairs
would tumble over of themselves. I tried it one day in the kitchen, and
I found I could do it quite well, and a whole row of plates on the
dresser fell off it, and cook's little work-table tilted up and turned
right over 'before her eyes,' as she said, but she was so frightened and
turned so white that I didn't do it again, as I liked her. And
afterwards, in the hazel copse, when she had shown me how to make
things tumble about, she showed me how to make rapping noises, and I
learnt how to do that, too. Then she taught me rhymes to say on certain
occasions, and peculiar marks to make on other occasions, and other
things that her great-grandmother had taught her when she was a little
girl herself. And these were all the things I was thinking about in
those days after the strange walk when I thought I had seen a great
secret, and I wished nurse were there for me to ask her about it, but
she had gone away more than two years before, and nobody seemed to know
what had become of her, or where she had gone. But I shall always
remember those