f
"plum-pudding stone." Golden-rod and the early blue aster were flowering
everywhere. A flock of sheep fled at their approach, with a low rushing
sound like the wind in boughs.

[Illustration: PURGATORY.

The name of "Purgatory" seemed to her to suggest some terrible sort of
place.--PAGE 188.]

Candace walked along with the rest, in a little shiver of expectancy.
The name of "Purgatory" seemed to her to suggest some terrible sort of
place. Presently she saw the girls ahead, as they reached a particular
point, diverge sharply to the right with little cries and exclamations;
and when she advanced, she found herself on the edge of a chasm deeper
and darker than any of those which they had passed. It cut the cliff
from its highest point to the sea-level; and the wall-like sides receded
toward their base, leaving vaulted hollows beneath, into which the eye
could not penetrate. Only the ear caught the sound of thunderous murmurs
and strange gurgles and hisses of spray echoing from unseen recesses far
underground; and it was easy to imagine that these sounds came from some
imprisoned sea-creature, hemmed in by the tide, with no chance of
escape, and vexing the air with its groans.

Candace shrank away from the brink with a sensation of affright. "What
an awful place!" she said, drawing a long breath. "Do you suppose any
one ever fell down there?"

Every member of the party had some tradition of the sort to relate; but
none of the stories seemed to rest on a very secure foundation.

"Anybody who did must be killed, I should think. I don't wonder they
named it Purgatory," said Marian.

There was a fascination of horror about the spot. The girls lingered and
leaned over the brink and turned back, until Mrs. Gray had to call them
away; and they were all rather silent as they walked across the field to
their carriages. But the impression was soon dispelled; for as they
drove down the incline toward the second beach, they came upon an
unexpected scene of brilliant and animated life.

The tide and the wind together were bringing ashore quantities of
seaweed of the kind used in manuring fields, and all the farmers of the
neighborhood had assembled to secure this heaven-planted harvest. The
long curves of yellow sands which stretch from the Purgatory rocks to
Sacluest Point were alive with people. Teams of mild mouse-colored or
white oxen stood harnessed to heavy wagons, ready to drag the seaweed
home. Out in the plunging su