went out to
Bevis, somewhere on deep waters keeping watchful guard against the
enemy.

It was so delightful in the cove that the girls were loath to go. They
climbed with reluctance up the steep sandy little path to the cliff. As
they neared the top they could hear voices in altercation--a
high-pitched, protesting, childish wail, and a blunt, uncompromising,
scolding retort. On the road above stood an invalid carriage, piled up
with innumerable parcels, and containing also a small boy. He was a
charmingly pretty little fellow, with a very pale, delicately oval face,
beautiful pathetic brown eyes, and rich golden hair that fell in curls
over his shoulders like a girl's. He was peering out from amidst the
host of packages and trying to look back along the road, and evidently
arguing some point with the utmost persistence. The untidy servant girl
who wheeled the carriage had stopped, and gave a heated reply.

"It's no use, I tell you! Goodness knows where you may have dropped it,
and if you think I'm going to traipse back you're much mistaken. We're
late as it is, and a pretty to-do there'll be when I get in. It's your
own fault for not taking better care of it."

"Have you lost anything?" enquired Elaine, as the girls entered the road
in the midst of the quarrel.

"It's his book," answered the servant. "He's dropped it out of the pram
somewhere on the way from Whitecliffe; but I can't go back for it, it's
too far, and we've got to be getting home."

"What kind of a book was it?" asked Marjorie.

"Fairy tales. Have you found it?" said the child eagerly. "All about
Rumpelstiltzkin and 'The Goose Girl' and 'The Seven Princesses'."

"We haven't found it, but we'll look for it on our way back. Have you
any idea where you dropped it?"

The little boy shook his head.

"I was reading it in the town while Lizzie went inside the shops. Then I
forgot about it till just now. Oh, I _must_ know what happened when the
Prince went to see the old witch!"

His brown eyes were full of tears and the corners of the pretty mouth
twitched.

"He's such a child for reading! At it all day long!" explained the
servant. "He thinks as much of an old book as some of us would of golden
sovereigns. Well, we must be getting on, Eric. I can't stop."

"Look here!" said Dona. "We'll hunt for the book on our way back to
Whitecliffe. If we find it we'll meet you here to-day fortnight at the
same time and give it to you."

"And suppose you do