ather;
still, the sight of fleecy, white clouds scudding across a blue sky, and
the sound of the missel-thrush tuning up on the bare branch of the
plum-tree were particularly cheering. Hedge-sparrows twittered among the
shrubs, and rooks were busy flying with large twigs in their bills to
repair their nests in the elms near the church. In the March sunshine
the lake glittered like gold.

"I wonder if it looked just like this when the old monks lived here,"
said Diana. "Did they see exactly what we do now?"

"Pretty much the same, I expect," answered Miss Carr rather
abstractedly. "The lake and the fells would be there, and probably most
of the farms, though the buildings would be different in those days. The
lay brethren would attend to the land just as we do. I dare say they dug
in this very orchard, and grew herbs in the same place where we're going
to plant our potatoes."

"It's a pity we can't call up a vision of them!"

"No, thank you!" said Miss Carr, who was a practical person, and not
given to romance. "I've not the slightest desire to see spooks. I'm
quite content with modern life, and don't want fourteenth-century ghosts
gliding about the place. Get on with your work, Diana! I'm more
concerned with apple-trees than with the old monks."

When Diana got an idea into her head, however, it was apt to stick. She
had a lively imagination, and she liked to picture what the Abbey had
once been. She read the account of it in the local guidebook and in
Chadwick's _Northern Antiquities_, which she borrowed from the library,
and she further devoured Scott's _The Monastery_. Steeped in this
mediaeval atmosphere, she began to tell the girls such vivid stories of
the doings of the brethren that they almost believed her. She invented
several fictitious characters: Brother Amos, Brother Lawrence, Brother
John, and Prior Andrew, and gave a most circumstantial account of their
adventures.

"How do you know what they used to do?" asked Jess, much impressed.

"I guess I sort of feel it," said Diana. "It's almost like remembering."

"Some people think we come back to earth and live again. Were you one of
the old monks, Di?"

"She must have been an unholy one, if she was!" interrupted Sadie.
"Anybody less like a monk than 'Stars and Stripes' I couldn't think of!"

"There were all sorts, of course. I've told you Brother Lawrence was up
to tricks sometimes, and got the discipline. The Prior used to be down
on him, just as