it is
interesting. For more than twenty years these places have never been
used at all, so we had no difficulty in getting the landlord to let us
make changes. It just suited us, and we were allowed to do as we liked.
So, you see, we have windows and doors; we have a fireplace in each of
the rooms we inhabit, and shafts to the top of the cliff, which act as
chimneys. So we are pretty comfortable, on the whole.'

'But,' said Estelle, drawing nearer to Mrs. Wright, 'isn't it dreadful
to have those long, gloomy places so near you? Did any of those poor
sick people die, and are they buried here, too?'

'They are not buried here,' replied Mrs. Wright. 'Why should they be?
There's the churchyard in the village. But the new hospital is in a far
healthier place than this, and better for everybody.'

This conversation made a deeper impression upon Estelle than even the
Treasure Caves had done. She was very silent, and all Jack's efforts to
rouse her met with but little success.

'You are going out to fish to-night?' she asked, her eyes wide open with
a nameless terror.

They had risen from the supper-table. Mrs. Wright washed up and put away
the china, and Jack had gone to prepare for the night's work. His
appearance in his oilskins seem to put the finishing touch to the
child's misery. He was going away all night. She and Goody would be
quite alone--quite alone, with all those dreadful rooms where the sick
and dying had lived; those gloomy, chill, sunless abodes for the
suffering. Her mind, sensitive and imaginative, shrank with horror from
the picture presented to her by her active brain.

'Don't go!--don't go!' she cried, clinging to the sailor's arm, as he
stooped to gather his nets and other necessaries together.

He looked at her in astonishment. She was trembling from head to foot,
while she clasped and unclasped her hands on his arm.

'My dearie, my dearie, what is it?' cried Goody, as surprised as was her
son. She was frightened at the excitement the little girl displayed.
'Nothing shall hurt you, dearie. Jack is going only for one night. He
will be back in the morning.'

'No, no, he must not go!' almost screamed Estelle, beside herself with
despair because he did not at once yield to her entreaties. 'He can't
leave us all alone.'

'She will be ill again,' sighed Mrs. Wright, her kind old face puckered
with anxiety. 'What has terrified her so?'

'Missie,' said Jack, firmly, 'nothing can be done while you go