only begin asking questions about my face, and grinning at me like
one of the great stupid fisher boys," said Aleck to himself, as he
passed the sling strap of the spy-glass over his shoulder and hurried in
and out among the bosky shrubs close under the great cliff wall, till,
passing suddenly round a great feathery tuft of tamarisk, he came
suddenly upon the very man he was trying to avoid, standing in a very
peculiar position, his back bowed inward, head thrown backward, and a
square black bottle held upside down, the neck to his lips and the
bottom pointing to the sky.

Aleck stopped short, vexed and wondering, while the old gardener jerked
himself upright, spilling some of the liquid over his chin and neck, and
making a movement as if to hide the bottle, but, seeing how impossible
it was, standing fast, with an imbecile grin on his countenance.

"Morning, Master Aleck," he said. "Strange hot morning. Been diggin';
and it makes me that thusty I'm obliged to keep a bottle o' water here
in the shady part o' the rocks."

"Oh, are you?" said Aleck, quietly, and he could not forbear giving a
sniff.

"Ah! nice, arn't it, sir? Flowers do smell out here on a morning like
this, what with the roses and the errubs and wile thyme and things. It
do make the bees busy. But what yer been eating on, sir? Or have yer
slipped down among the nattles? Your face is swelled-up a sight. Here,
I know--you've been bathing!"

"Not this morning, Ness; I did yesterday."

"That's it, then, my lad, and you should mind. I know you've had one o'
they jelly-fish float up agen yer face, and they sting dreadful
sometimes."

"Yes, I know," said Aleck, beginning to move onward past the man; "but
it wasn't a jelly-fish that stung my face."

"Wasn't it now? Yer don't mean it was a bee or wops?"

"No, Ness; it was a blackguard's fist."

"Why, yer don't mean to say yer been fighting, do 'ee?"

"Yes, I do, Ness. Going to finish the celery trench?"

"Yes, sir; but the ground's mighty hard. Hot wuck, that it is. But
where be going wi' the spy-glass?"

"Over yonder along the cliffs to look at the Eilyguggs."

"Eh?" cried the man, sharply. "'Long yonder, past the houses?"

"Yes."

"Nay, nay, nay, I wouldn't go that away. Go east'ard. It's a deal
better and nicer that way, and there's more buds."

"I'll go that way another time," said the boy, surlily, and he hurried
on. "A nasty old cheat," he muttered; "does he take me for