nd ran along level a little while with dark woods on
either side. Then up again, steeper than ever, till you reached the top
of the hill, and on one side saw the plain beneath, dotted over with
villages and church spires, and on the other hand wide sloping beech
woods, which were just now delicately green with their young spring
leaves.

Mrs Darvell set her basket down on the ground when she reached this
point, and drew a long breath; the worst of the walk was over now, and
she thought with relief how good it would be to pull off her boots, and
hoped that Frank had not forgotten to have the kettle on for tea. She
presently trudged on again with renewed spirits, and in ten minutes more
the faint blue smoke from a chimney caught her eye; that was neighbour
Gunn's cottage, and their own was close by. "And right thankful I be,"
said Mrs Darvell to herself as she unlatched the little garden gate.

The cottage was one of a small lonely cluster standing on the edge of an
enormous beech wood. Not so very long ago the wood had covered the
whole place; but gradually a clearing had been made, the ground
cultivated, and a little settlement had sprung up, which was known as
"Green Highlands." It belonged to the parish of Danecross, a village in
the plain below, three good miles away; so that for church, school, and
public-house the people had to descend the long hill up which Mrs
Darvell had just struggled. Shops there were none, even in Danecross,
and for these they had to go a mile further, to the market-town of
Daylesbury. But all this was not such a hardship to the people of Green
Highlands as might be supposed, and many of them would not have changed
their cottage on the hill for one in the village on the plain; for the
air of Green Highlands was good, the children "fierce," which in those
parts means healthy and strong, and everyone possessed a piece of garden
big enough to grow vegetables and accommodate a family pig.

So the people, though poor, were contented, and had a more prosperous
well-to-do air than some of the Danecross folk, who received higher
wages and lived in the valley.

The room Mrs Frank Darvell entered with a heavy, tired tread was a
good-sized kitchen, one end of which was entirely occupied by a huge
open fireplace without any grate; on the hearth burned and crackled a
bright little wood-fire, the flames of which played merrily round a big
black kettle hung on a chain. A little checked curtain hu