erwards. So--

"Yes," she said, "it was."

"Well done!" said the Porter; "speak the truth and shame the--"

"But we'd have come down the very next day if we'd known you hadn't
heard the story," Phyllis added hastily.

"I believe you, Missie," said Perks, and sprang across the line six feet
in front of the advancing train.

The girls hated to see him do this, but Peter liked it. It was so
exciting.

The Russian gentleman was so delighted with the strawberries that the
three racked their brains to find some other surprise for him. But all
the racking did not bring out any idea more novel than wild cherries.
And this idea occurred to them next morning. They had seen the blossom
on the trees in the spring, and they knew where to look for wild
cherries now that cherry time was here. The trees grew all up and along
the rocky face of the cliff out of which the mouth of the tunnel opened.
There were all sorts of trees there, birches and beeches and baby oaks
and hazels, and among them the cherry blossom had shone like snow and
silver.

The mouth of the tunnel was some way from Three Chimneys, so Mother let
them take their lunch with them in a basket. And the basket would do
to bring the cherries back in if they found any. She also lent them her
silver watch so that they should not be late for tea. Peter's Waterbury
had taken it into its head not to go since the day when Peter dropped it
into the water-butt. And they started. When they got to the top of the
cutting, they leaned over the fence and looked down to where the railway
lines lay at the bottom of what, as Phyllis said, was exactly like a
mountain gorge.

"If it wasn't for the railway at the bottom, it would be as though the
foot of man had never been there, wouldn't it?"

The sides of the cutting were of grey stone, very roughly hewn. Indeed,
the top part of the cutting had been a little natural glen that had been
cut deeper to bring it down to the level of the tunnel's mouth. Among
the rocks, grass and flowers grew, and seeds dropped by birds in the
crannies of the stone had taken root and grown into bushes and trees
that overhung the cutting. Near the tunnel was a flight of steps leading
down to the line--just wooden bars roughly fixed into the earth--a very
steep and narrow way, more like a ladder than a stair.

"We'd better get down," said Peter; "I'm sure the cherries would be
quite easy to get at from the side of the steps. You remember it was
there w