ps and spoons,
to make as much noise as possible; but for all she could do, the house
felt silent and empty, and she missed papa very much. Her plan had
been to go to the village as soon as her work was done, and make Mrs.
Downs a visit, but later another idea popped into her mind. She would
go to the Oven instead.

"I know about where it is," she thought. "If I keep close to the shore
I can't miss it, anyway. Mr. Downs said it wasn't more than two miles
and three-quarters from the causeway. Two miles and three-quarters
isn't a very long walk. It won't be half-tide till after ten. I can
get there by a little after nine if I start at once. That'll give me
an hour to see the cave, and when I come back I'll go down to the
village and stay to dinner with Mrs. Downs. I'll take some bread and
butter, though, because one does get so hungry up here if you take the
least little walk. What a good idea it is to do this! I am glad papa
went to Malachi, after all."

Her preparations were soon made, and in ten minutes she was speeding
across the causeway, which was safe walking still, though the tide had
turned,--her pocket full of bread and butter, and Genevieve in her
arms. She had hesitated whether or not to take Genevieve, but it
seemed too sad to leave her all alone on the island, so it ended in
her going too, in her best bonnet and a little blanket shawl. The
morning was most beautiful, dewy and fresh, and the path along the
shore was scented with freshly cut hay from inland fields, and with
spicy bayberry and sweet fern. A belated wild rose shone here and
there in the hedges, pale and pink. Tangles of curly, green-brown
fringe lay over the clustering Virgin's Bower. The blue lapping waves,
as they rose and fell, were full of sea-weeds of a lovely red-brown
tint, and a frolicsome wind played over the surface of the sea, and
seemed to be whispering something funny to it, for the water trembled
in the sun and dimpled as if with sudden laughter.

The way, as a general thing, lay close by the shore, winding over the
tops of low cliffs covered with dry yellow grasses. Now and then it
dipped down to strips of shingle beach, or skirted little coves with
boundaries of bushes and brambles edging the sand. Miles are not easy
to reckon when people are following the ins and outs of an irregular
coast. Half a dozen times Eyebright clambered to the water's edge and
peeped round the shoulder of a great rock, thinking that she must have
go