s
of reeds and iris. The villages had timbered cottages with thatched
roofs and flowery gardens, old grey church towers showed among groups of
leafy elms, and picturesque farm buildings and straw-stacks stood back
from the road at the ends of by-lanes.

Kitty and Lesbia ate their sandwiches very early, sitting in a wood blue
with hyacinths, more than doubtful indeed that they were trespassing,
but hoping no indignant farmer would spy them and turn them out. They
rested here for half an hour, dozing in a patch of sunshine and
blissfully happy, till a colony of ants discovered them and began to
employ forcible measures of ejectment.

"Wow! The ants are stinging my ankles," wailed Kitty.

"Ants and ankles or aunts and uncles did you say?" twittered Lesbia,
trying to slay a mosquito, which was making a ferocious onslaught at her
hatless forehead. "This place is rather too much alive for my taste. I
vote we get a move on."

"Right-o! I'm ready if you are. I never saw such a bloodthirsty crew of
insects. I wonder what they live on when there are no human beings to
bite?"

"I don't know. But I don't see the fun of acting dinner for them at any
rate. Here are our bikes. How hot they are! We oughtn't to have left
them in the sun. What's the name of the next village? Let me look at the
map. Why, we must be just here, close to Rawsthorne. We can join the
Glenbridge Road and go home by Hanburnham."

On the outskirts of the village our cyclists were obliged to dismount
sharply, owing to a sudden block in the road. A car turning out of a
carriage drive very nearly collided with an old-fashioned gig, and
brought a phaeton behind it to a standstill. To add to the difficulty,
there were several conveyances drawn up under the hedge, two empty cars,
a landau, and a pony trap. Looking for some explanation of this unwonted
traffic in a country village, Kitty noticed an auctioneer's bill pasted
on a board beside the open gate, setting forth particulars of a sale of
household furniture and other effects, which was apparently taking
place on that identical day. Gazing up the drive she could see a crowd
of people assembled upon the lawn.

"A sale! Oh, what sport to go to it!" she exclaimed eagerly. "I wonder
how they let you in? May anybody just walk up to the house?"

"People all seem to have catalogues," ventured Lesbia, peeping wistfully
round the gate-post into the attractive grounds.

She made this remark at a most opportune mom