eadfully sorry when he died. Hilda said she'd like to go
into mourning, and Artie and I inked black edges to some sheets of
tiny notepaper, and wrote on them to tell Granny and Aunt Edith. We
had a beautiful funeral for him, and made wreaths to lay on his grave,
and planted the prettiest flowers we could dig up out of our gardens
on it. It was Oswald who thought of the stone during the Easter
holidays. It wasn't finished until Hilda had gone back to London, so
she hasn't seen it yet. I'm sure she'll like it."

There seemed so many interesting things to see and hear at Garth Avon
that the two girls amused themselves out-of-doors until after seven
o'clock, when they heard a brisk ringing of bells, and, running to the
gate, were just in time to open it for Linda's brothers, who came
riding up on their bicycles. Oswald was a few years older than Linda,
and Artie a little younger; both were nice hearty boys, who seemed
ready to make friends at once with their sister's visitor.

"We've heard such a jolly lot about you, you know," said Oswald,
shaking hands. "Lin can talk of nobody else. We always say the school
must be made up of Sylvia and Miss Kaye."

"You're late, aren't you?" asked Linda. "We thought you'd have been
here an hour ago."

"We may well be late. Artie's tyre punctured on the road between
Abergele and Llandulas, and we had to walk our machines to Colwyn Bay
before we could get anyone to mend it. We tried to patch it up
ourselves, but I hadn't a big enough piece of rubber to cover it. Then
the fellow at the bicycle shop was such a slow chap, I thought he was
going to be all night fiddling over it, and we didn't dare to pump it
till it had dried a little. Luckily we got some tea before we left
school, but we're hungry enough now. Isn't supper ready?"

"Ready and spoiling," said Linda. "It's sausages, and I could smell
them cooking through the kitchen window half an hour ago. Sylvia and I
have been watching in the garden for you ever so long. Be quick and
come down; I want to tell you about a most delightful plan I've
thought of for to-morrow."

CHAPTER XV

An Excursion with a Donkey

Linda's plan proved such a promising one that both the boys and Sylvia
fell in readily with her ideas. She suggested that they should all
four make an excursion to the top of Pen y Gaer, a mountain in the
neighbourhood, where were the remains of a very fine British camp, and
from which they could obtain an excellent