The garden was very nice, but the moor!
--a heaven-sent playground, miles of freedom, and all to themselves.
The thought of having to return at eleven was the only thing that marred
their perfect joy; they felt they wanted to have the whole long day before
them to cover all the ground and make all the discoveries they wanted to.
Guard, a proud and delighted protector, rushed about as excitedly as any
of them. The new interest that had come into his life promised to be all
that he could desire.

"I do want to get to the very top of that mountain," said Penelope, gazing
earnestly at what was really a very modest hill, and apparently at no
great distance from them.

"Well, let's," said Esther encouragingly, "it can't be very far away," and
off they started. But the grey tor seemed to possess the power of gliding
backwards, and the more the children walked, the further it seemed to
recede; until at last, when, on scaling what they thought was the last
height, they saw still a long stretch of moorland before them, with more
deceptive dips and rises, they gave in and postponed their climb for
another day. Moor air has a way of increasing the appetite at an alarming
rate.

"I am afraid it must be past eleven," said Esther as they gave up the
quest, and sat down to rest before turning homewards. "I wish I had put
on my watch; but I was afraid of losing it."

Esther had a silver watch of her very own, one she had earned for herself.
She had won it as a prize in a competition offered by a magazine the
children took in. Her success had come as a surprise to them all, but
most of all to herself, and the proudest moment of her life had been that
when a carefully sealed-up jeweller's box had come directed to
'Miss E. J. Carroll,' and she had lifted out her prize under the admiring
eyes of Lydia and the children, and the astonished gaze of her mother.

Mrs. Carroll was doubly astonished, firstly because she had not considered
Esther capable, secondly because she had not grasped the fact that Esther
was really seriously competing; but when she saw this proof of her
labours, she made her a present of a pretty silver chain, with two little
silver tassels at the end, and Esther's cup of joy overflowed.

From that moment she would have bodices to her frocks that buttoned up in
front, that she might pass the little silver bar through the buttonhole;
and she set herself to make watch-pockets in all her skirts, which she
managed b