Front matter (continued 3)

No sooner did it enter Rick's mind that he might find a playmate by following the smaller path, than he turned his pony out of the lane, thinking he would come back and follow that at some other day.

The new path wound upwards constantly; but, as it was seldom very steep, neither Rick nor the pony minded that. It was a very pleasant path; and after Rick had given up the hope that it led to a castle, he was so curious to know where it ended, that he still kept on.

After a while this path branched off, by several other paths, still narrower,—one of them to the left, one to the right, and another between these two, but yet not in a direct line to the main path.

Rick concluded to go a little way on one path, and then come back and go a little way on the others, so as to get an idea of each. Accordingly, he took the middle path. But he had scarcely entered this path, before it divided into two other paths. As one of these was wider than the other, he took that. After riding on a little way, Rick and the pony came suddenly out into an open level space.

This space was a clearing, where many noble trees had been felled, and which was surrounded by a majestic wall of beautiful pines still standing. It was a circular opening, and Rick took it into his head that it would be fun to ride around the edge of it, as he had seen men ride around the mile circle at a horse-race.

Skip was as tired as Rick was of going up hill all the time; and she at once pricked up her ears, and started off, jumping over the stumps, and frisking generally.

Whether Rick went around the circle of the clearing more than once or not, he was never certain; for when he looked for the path by which he had entered, he could not find it, or, if he found it, he did not recognize it. There proved to be a number of small paths leading into the clearing, and one larger path leading out of it, down which the timber had evidently been carried.

After trying in vain to find the path by which he had entered, Rick, who was by this time getting a little anxious, concluded to follow the main path, which would be likely, at any rate, to take him out of the woods.

To his delight, he found the path led down hill. He concluded he was going down the hill he had come up, at another point, and should now easily find the road by which he had entered the woods.

He rode down hill for some time, most of the way through an open district, which had long been cleared of trees, and at length came upon more level land, and another path running at right angles with that which had led down the declivity.

Rick was now sadly perplexed. His head was so much turned that he had no idea of the points of compass. It was impossible for him to retrace his steps, on account of not knowing by what path he had entered the first clearing.

Far ahead of him, to the left, however, there was smoke curling up above the trees. At the right, the path seemed to lead along the edge of a quarry and to end there.

Turning to the left, Rick rode along until the road ended in a clump of low woods. There was nothing to be done but to follow the direction in which he had seen the smoke rise. But, now he had entered the woods, he could no longer see the smoke; and, worse still, the underbrush was so thick, and the ground so swampy, that Skip could not make her way, but soon became entangled in the thicket, the bog, and the brambles.

To add to Rick's troubles, it was getting late in the afternoon, the sun had become clouded over, and there were signs of rain. His only hope was to get to the place where the smoke came from, and inquire his way. With a heavy heart, he dismounted, and after leading Skip into a clearer place, near the entrance to the wood, hugged her around the neck, told her he would be back by and by, and started out on foot, in the direction in which he had seen the smoke as nearly as he could judge of it.

As he disappeared, he heard Skip neighing after him, and he felt very lonely and downhearted indeed.

He pushed his way through the briers and underbrush, sometimes sinking into the mud, and sometimes going splash into the water, without coming to any signs of a habitation, or any thing which could have caused the smoke. Finally, he was not sure that he was going in the direction of the smoke at all, as the trees hid it from his sight, and he resolved to return to Skip: perhaps, by trying again, they could find their way home, either by the paths they had come, or some other.

But now that he was resolved to go back to Skip, Rick was not sure of that direction either; and he had gone so far that he could not possibly hear the faithful creature neigh for his return.

Brave as the boy was, this dilemma, together with weariness, overcame him so much, that he sat down upon a rock and began to cry: perhaps he could never find his way out of this miry, tangled wood, and would die there alone. He thought of the babes in the wood, and that they were better off than he, since they could share each other's woes. If only Skip were with him! "Oh, dear!" he said, "if some one would only come and find me!"

"You have your wish, and what now?" said a rather cracked and sharp voice.

Rick took his hand from his eyes, and looked up. Directly in front of him was a thin, oldish woman, with gray hair, and very black eyes, dressed in what seemed to Rick a yellow satin skirt, richly embroidered, a red satin waist, and a sort of red turban. She was a very bright object in the dusky woods.

At another time Rick would have been frightened at such an apparition, alone in the woods; but, under the circumstances, he was more relieved than frightened at hearing a voice, and seeing what at first appeared to him to be a human form.

"You have your wish," she repeated, "and what now?"

"I want you to tell me how I can find my way home."

"The idea! Was Rick Lordelle ever willing to do any thing he was told to do, before he got into this scrape? Since you would never take good advice until this day, Master Rick, you may now do the best you can without it. Has not Nanette told you about the fairies in the woods?"

"Yes," said Rick, so frightened that he was hardly able to speak the word.

"You see one now, and little comfort will you get from her. Fairies have better business than helping headstrong young gentlemen out of their scrapes. I know very well that you never told your mother and Nanette that you were going wandering about in the woods, and a pretty fright they are in now! So help yourself, if you can!"

"But I don't know which way to go to get home," sobbed Rick.

"You'd better start off somewhere in a hurry, if you don't want to spend the night in these woods. Boys that have their own way must go by their own way, and suffer the consequences. So get up, and make your way across the mountains the best way you can; for you've gone up one hill, and come down another."

"I thought I came down the same side I went up."

"And so you would go and travel off in this direction, and leave the castle farther and farther behind, you? A fine fellow to have your own way! Come with me, and I will show you the mountain that lies between you and the castle; for I would have a boy of your stamp out of my woods as soon as possible. Nanette has told you, many a time, that fairies have no liking for folks who are no better disposed than you are. Come along, in a hurry, and stop your babyish crying! If Nanette and your mother could see their fine young gentleman now!"

Rick followed the fairy, sobbing more quietly to himself, until she brought him out of the woods, into a green open space with a brook flowing through it. Just before them was a mountain, sharply defined against the sky.

"Across that mountain you must go; and now let the young gentleman who likes his own way so well, take it as he chooses," said the austere fairy.

"Thank you," replied Rick, with more politeness than he had ever exercised before; and he started across the meadow, beyond which there was another wood at the foot of the mountain.

"How shall I get across the brook?" he asked, stopping suddenly, but not daring to look around at his stern guide.

"Go to the brook first: you cannot cross it until you get to it. When you reach it, a bridge will grow across it."

"And I cannot see any path in the woods, across the meadow, at the foot of the mountain."

"If no path opens before you in those woods, my fine young gentleman, say that the fairies have bewitched it."

Rick dared ask no more questions, and so he walked on towards the brook. When he reached it, sure enough, there was a foot-path across it, which looked like soft green moss, but was formed by an old tree-trunk overgrown with lichens. Rick ventured upon it very cautiously, but he found it firm; and, when he came to the woods, quite a broad path opened directly before him.

As he entered the path, he ventured to look back. The bridge over the brook had disappeared, but there stood the fairy, where he had left her; and, as he looked back, she called out with a laugh,—

"Ten to one, you'll come across the old man of the mountains with a big whip in his hand; but tell him that Zenia is near, and he will not touch a hair of your head."

Rick was now in great distress. The stern fairy was behind him, and, possibly, a man of the mountains before him. The best he could do, however, was to keep on towards the castle. Fearful as he was, he was consoled to find the path opening steadily before him up the mountain. It at length led him out upon a rocky spur, and here a narrow foot-path began to trace a winding line up and around ragged precipices. Without this path, he could never have made his way among the many ledges about him.

After toiling up this rocky ascent, very fearful regarding "the old man of the mountains," and hoping he would be away from home that afternoon, Rick at length stood upon the summit, and, still following the little winding path that seemed to creep along just before his feet, came suddenly upon the brink of a great precipice. Down, down, hundreds of feet below him, lay the river-road, and, yes, the castle itself: he could see its tower and ivied sides. And here was he on a rocky height that went sheer down a dizzy wall of ragged bowlders and ledges, to rough, rocky hills below.

Just as a dreadful conviction came upon him that he should never see his mother and Nanette again, but should die in sight of his home, a great figure arose close before him over the brink of the precipice. Two brilliant circles surrounded the giant form, and a yellow halo encircled his head. Bright-colored rays shot out from the figure on all sides. In his hand, the strange, airy giant held a long, shining whip; and he was moving towards Rick in an ominous manner.

The poor boy was so terrified, that, although he tried to shout, he only began to sob frantically.

"Ho! ho!" said the man of the mountains, "Ho! ho!"

"Zenia is near!" Rick tried to say, but it was hardly more than a faint, wild shriek.

As soon as he spoke those words, however, the giant began to look less brilliant, and the figure itself to grow less distinct and farther away, until it disappeared, leaving the clear air, the sky, and the valley below, just as they had been before.

When the giant had disappeared, a voice behind Rick said,—

"I thought he would appear to you. Do you know what it means to see the old man of the mountains, with that long stick in his hand?"

Rick recognized the sharp voice, and, turning around, saw the fairy seated upon a low crag behind him, fanning herself with a bough laden with green leaves, and flowers just the color of her skirt.

She repeated the question again, in a louder voice; for Rick was so frightened and confused that he made no reply.

"No, ma'am," he faltered.

"Well, I'll tell you what it means, my fine young gentleman: it means that it is high time for the person who sees that sight, to make a change in his ways. Do you know what change you had better make in your ways?"

"No, ma'am," responded Rick meekly.

"Perhaps you don't know what you're coming to, my fine young gentleman. You're coming to be an ignorant man, more ignorant than many a peasant's son, as ignorant as a gypsy. And it's a bad man you're going to make,—a spendthrift, a drunkard, a sluggard, a ne'er do well, a villain, like enough. No one will respect you, no one trust you, no one love you, except your father and mother and Nanette, whose hearts you have crushed, and whose names you have disgraced."

Although Rick did not understand all the words she used, his imagination pictured even a worse prophecy, if possible, than their true meaning. He felt as if his future was pronounced, and was a terrible doom, which also involved his parents and Nanette in disgrace and ruin.

He fell upon his knees, and burst into a fresh flood of tears. Though he tried to speak, and beg the fairy to take back the dreadful words, he was so frightened and grief-stricken that he could utter nothing but convulsive sobs.

"What is the matter?" asked the fairy.

"Oh! oh!" sobbed Rick. "Don't let it happen to me! don't let it happen to my father and mother and Nanette!"

"How can I help it, silly boy? No one can help it but yourself. You might prevent it, if you would, but there is no use in supposing you ever will: you would rather have your own way, and go to destruction, than cross your own wishes, and come to a good end. I could tell you how you could change your fortune, and, instead of all this, grow up a good and noble man, of whom your father and mother would be proud. But to do that, you would have to change your present course entirely; and that you would not do."

"Oh, yes, I will! I will!" cried Rick eagerly. "Tell me how I can change my fortune!"

"Very well, I can tell you, although it will be only a waste of words. But you sha'n't have it to say it wasn't told you, and so you will have no one to blame but yourself, for going to destruction. There's Herr Schuler, in the village, who has taught many a peasant's son more than you are ever likely to know, and taught many a gentleman's son besides; so that it's been well said that the boy who has begun to learn under Herr Schuler never can grow up a dunce. If you will give up your play and nonsense from morning to night, and your lazy, lounging ways, and go over to Herr Schuler's, to learn to read, write, and cipher, to talk like a well-educated young gentleman, and to get a dressing with his long whip once in a while, to mend your ways and your manners, there'll be a chance for you yet."

"I'll go to-morrow!" cried Rick joyfully.

"A likely story, that! If I show you your way home, when you get there, safe and sound, that'll be the last you'll think of Zenia, and the good advice she gave you."

"No! no!" cried Rick. "I truly will go to Herr Schuler and learn!"

"If there's man enough in you to keep to that mind, my young gentleman, what will your lady-mother say to your going to Herr Schuler to learn? She'll say it's not the place for a fine gentleman's son like you."

"I sha'n't care what she says," replied Rick, conscious that he could have his own way with his mother. "I shall certainly go, let my mother say what she will."

The fairy laughed, and began to look upon Rick rather more graciously.

"It's not a likely story. But it's a good turn you'll do your mother and yourself, if you do as you say. And mind you, you'll need the long stick, and don't you be afraid of it: there'll be a power of good in every stroke; it'll help to make a man of you, and it'll be the best medicine that ever you had. But one thing's sure: if you tell your mother and Nanette, or any one else, of your meeting me in this wood, and receiving this advice from me, there'll be an end of your changing your fortune. Tell no one a word, but get your own way, and go to Herr Schuler to-morrow. Tell him you're coming every day, to take lessons, as long as you stay at the castle."

"I'll do it!" cried Rick, "I'll do it!—and if I do, the bad things won't come to pass, will they?"

"Never a one of them, my lad, never a one of them; but if you don't keep your promise, mind you, they'll every one of them come true, you may depend upon it. Get up now, and go ahead of me. I'll show you how paths will open before you that you'd never have found without Zenia behind you. And with Herr Schuler behind you, there'll open a way that it will pay you well to walk in. So, go ahead, my laddie!"

Rick was very much comforted and re-assured by the pleasanter tone of Zenia's voice, as well as by the prospect of avoiding the awful future she had described, under the guidance of Herr Schuler; and he went on before her with a springing step. He wanted to look behind very much, now and then, but was afraid to do so: neither did he dare address her, but he followed her directions very obediently and promptly.

Her first direction was to go to the left. Now, at the left, there was apparently nothing but a thick growth of briers and bushes. But he had no sooner reached this thicket, in the way indicated, than a narrow but distinct path opened before him, which wound down the hill by the side of a little rivulet.

At the bottom of the hill, there was a swamp, in which Rick sank at every step, until the fairy said,—

"Let me go before you, and follow in my footsteps."

So Zenia took the lead; and, to Rick's surprise, he found that, by following directly in her steps, he had a perfectly firm footing in the midst of the swamp.

On the other side of the swamp rose another line of high hills, and it made Rick's tired limbs ache harder to think of having to climb over them.

But as they approached these hills, the two directly in front of them appeared to move apart, disclosing a very good, grassy road.

The fairy followed Rick along the winding road between the mountains, singing to herself in a low, monotonous tone, and not deigning to speak to Rick until they came out into a meadow, whose farther end seemed to rest against the sky. But to Rick's surprise, they had gone only a little way before they stood upon the verge of a hill, and below him Rick saw the familiar river-road again, lying, a white, winding streak, as far as he could see on either hand, and, not far to the right, half hidden by the trees, was the castle, its windows burning with the sunset glow shining beneath a mass of clouds that had just lifted from the horizon.

Rick's heart leaped with joy and thankfulness. Never before had his mother and Nanette and the castle seemed so dear.

"Hurry home now, as fast as you please; but don't forget all that Zenia has told you," said the fairy.

Rick ran down over the long, slanting fields of the descent before him as fast as he could go. He had turned to thank the fairy for her kindness; but she had suddenly disappeared, leaving him alone upon the brow of the hill.

His mother and Nanette had grown so anxious about him, that they had sent Peter, the groom, off on horseback to look for him. They were astonished enough to see Rick coming into the yard on foot, with torn and soiled garments. But as soon as they found he was sound and well, although exhausted by fatigue and excitement, Nanette said,—

"What has become of Skip?"

Rick had been so frightened, and so taken up with his strange situation and the fairy's presence, that he had, until that moment, forgotten all about poor Skip.

He burst into tears, and was about to tell his mother and Nanette all of his adventures, when he remembered the fairy's caution, and the awful fate which awaited him if he should disclose his meeting with her. So he only explained that he had got lost, and had to leave Skip in some woods of whose situation he was ignorant, and that he had come home on foot through strange and curious ways.

"Poor boy!" said his mother, kissing him fondly, and feeling glad to see him appear so singularly gentle and downcast, although she was very sorry for him. "He is crying because he is so sorry about Skip. When Peter comes home, we will send him off at once to get Skip."

But it was in vain that Peter, following Rick's directions as far as the bewildered boy could give any, searched the woods for the pony. Long after dark, he came home without having seen a trace of her.

The next morning, Skip was found tied just outside the castle-gate; and no one about the castle could tell how she came there, unless it was Rick, who was certain, in his own mind, that it was Zenia's doings.

Before the dew was off the grass, Rick mounted the pony.

"Now, my love," said his mother, "do not ride far this morning, for fear you will get lost again in these wild woods. Keep to the main road, or I shall never dare to trust you away from the castle again without Peter behind you."

"I shall never go into the woods again," said Rick, in a tone of decision, which quite re-assured his mother. "I am going over to Herr Schuler's, to get him to teach me to read and write and cipher, and to train me with his long stick."

His mother could not believe her ears; and, while she was collecting her wits, Rick rode away, not in his usual gay manner, but looking as serious as a judge.

When he came to Herr Schuler's house, he dismounted, and knocked at the door.

Herr Schuler himself appeared.

"Ah, my little man!" said he, "what can I do for you?"

"I want you to teach me," said Rick.

"Indeed! Did your mother send you to me?"

"No, sir: I have come because I wanted to."

"Are not you the boy who dislikes schools and teachers so much?"

"I was that boy; but I am a boy now who wants to learn, and no one can teach me but you."

"I must go over and see your mother, then, and find out about it," replied Herr Schuler, who was much perplexed.

"But I want to commence this morning, and have brought the books that my mother and Nanette tried to make me study in."

Hereupon Rick ran and took off a little satchel which he had hung upon his saddle.

"This looks like business," said Herr Schuler. "If you keep on as you have begun, it will not take long to make a scholar of you."

He took Rick in, set him down at a little table, and gave him an easy lesson to learn, in spelling. It was soon learned, and then followed one column of the multiplication table. After that, Rick wrote the words of a copy over half a dozen times, very carefully. Then he read a short story aloud. Herr Schuler said that was enough for once; and Rick went home feeling very proud and happy, to tell his mother and Nanette what Herr Schuler said,—that there was now no reason why he should not become as good a scholar as any in the whole country.

His mother and Nanette praised and encouraged him; but they said behind his back, that this new freak would not continue long. They were greatly mistaken. Day after day Rick went to Herr Schuler's, and learned his lessons faithfully: more than that, he seemed to enjoy them as much as he had previously enjoyed his idleness. One reason of this was, that Herr Schuler had a way of making lessons so interesting that they seemed like play, and he did not give too long tasks.

After Rick had been to school about a fortnight, he lingered after he had been dismissed.

"Do you want to speak with me, Rick?" asked Herr Schuler.

"I only want to ask you," replied Rick, "when you are going to use your long stick upon me?"

"What!" exclaimed Herr Schuler, in great glee, thinking Rick was joking. "You don't want a whipping, do you?"

"Yes, I do!" replied Rick soberly and emphatically.

"You don't mean it!" exclaimed Herr Schuler, in amazement.

"Why not?" replied Rick. "I never shall make a man, if you don't whip me some; and I want you to begin right off."

It was with much difficulty that Herr Schuler restrained his smiles. "Well, well, Rick! if you are really willing"—

"Willing!" interrupted Rick, "I am in a great hurry."

"Very well: perhaps there are some things that you will learn better by the use of my long stick, than you will from books or lectures; so look out for a whipping soon."

Rick hurried home in high spirits, to tell his mother and Nanette that he was getting on so well that Herr Schuler was going to begin switching him with his long stick, to teach him some things that he could not learn out of books.

"My dear child!" exclaimed his mother. "It is because you have never known what a whipping is, that you are in such glee. What have you been doing to displease Herr Schuler? Tell me at once. I will go directly and ask him to pardon you and spare his rod."

"No, no!" cried Rick excitedly. "If you do, I will never forgive you!"

"But do you know, my child, that a whipping hurts?"

"Of course I do! Don't I switch Skip with my whip, to make her go faster, and to mind what I tell her? And haven't I switched myself with it, too, for fun? And haven't I seen boys whipped ever so many times, and crying and dancing about? But I shall neither dance nor cry, because I shall like it."

"What a strange boy!" said his mother, laughing. "But I will trust Herr Schuler not to do my boy any injury, and we will see if you like the rod so well after you have felt it."

The next day, when Rick made his appearance, Herr Schuler said,—

"This is the third or fourth time you have been late, my boy. One of the worst of faults is to be habitually late. Suppose we apply a little birch, to strengthen your memory of this fact?"

So Herr Schuler went to a little closet in one corner of the room, and took down a long, smooth birch switch, from a nail upon which it was hanging.

Rick's eyes glistened with anticipation, and he began to pull off his jacket.

"Oh! you needn't take off your jacket," said Herr Schuler.

"Yes," answered Rick: "that's the way Peter makes his boy do, when he whips him."

Herr Schuler whizzed the rod through the air with a great flourish and noise, but brought it down as lightly as possible upon Rick's back.

"You are only making believe!" exclaimed Rick, with a sort of indignation at the sham. "Such a whipping as that will never make a man of me."

Upon this, Herr Schuler laid on with a will, determined to give Rick so much of the stick that he would never again plead for a whipping. But the little hero never winced.

"Will that do?" asked the master at last, in almost a tone of entreaty.

"Perhaps it will do for this time," replied Rick; "but it's no more than a respectable whipping. Now I'm ready for my lessons, and I'll try never to be late again."

"Bravo!" cried Herr Schuler: "at this rate, I will soon put you in a way to become such a man as your country will be proud of."

But Herr Schuler's resolution failed him. Although he had whipped many a rough and heedless scholar into better manners by his long stick, his kind heart and his just soul recoiled from the thought of punishing so steady and earnest a boy as Rick had become, for trivial faults of which the boy himself was unconscious. It was Rick himself who next referred to the rod.

"It is two weeks since I have had a birch lesson," he said.

"Ah! h'm!" replied Herr Schuler, getting up and going to the closet very reluctantly. "So you want another birch lesson, so soon?"

He took down the stick, and then resumed his seat in front of Rick.

"What was that you were telling little Jean Pettis, when you first came this morning? Did you not say that you had seen an elephant as high as my barn, and that you rode upon his back with about a hundred other children?"

"Well, he was a very large elephant."

"Was he as high as my barn?"

"Why, he was almost as high, I think."

"Look out of the window at the barn, and tell me, truly as you can, about how high you really think the elephant would reach."

Rick looked out, and, after a careful examination, said, with rather an ashamed look, that he thought he would reach about to the top of the barn-door.

"Very good," said Herr Schuler; "and now think, and tell me truly, about how many children you really suppose there were on the elephant's back."

After thinking a while, Rick said, with a deep blush, that he was not sure that there were more than twenty-five.

"Very well," said Herr Schuler: "if you go on at this rate, do you expect to grow up a reliable man, whose word can be depended upon? Take off your jacket!"

"There!" he continued, after he had given Rick a number of sharp blows, "will that make you remember to be more truthful in your statements?"

"I guess it will help," replied Rick; "but if I find myself talking so carelessly again, I will tell you, and take another whipping to help my memory."

He was as good as his word: he came to Herr Schuler several times after that, with the information that he had not told the exact truth, and took a whipping for it.

Only once, however, did Herr Schuler whip him with a right good will of his own; and that was after he had paid a visit at the castle, and heard Rick, several times, speak disrespectfully to his mother.

For instance, when his mother said she thought she should have a branch cut from one of the trees near the castle, because it shaded Rick's window too much, Rick said,—

"A branch! I guess I'll have that whole tree down, or nothing; it's only a bother, anyway; it not only darkens the window, but it spoils the view out of the window. I'll have the tree cut down to the ground!"

Herr Schuler was so polite a man that he appeared to take no notice of Rick's independent remarks; but the next day, he said to him,—

"If you want a good whipping now, young man, you can have it, and I can put it on with a good will."

"All right," replied Rick very cheerfully: "what is it for?"

Herr Schuler then told him how sorry he had been to find that he was in the habit of speaking disrespectfully to his mother, and to other elders at home.

"Why, I didn't know there was any harm in that," replied Rick, in unfeigned surprise. Thereupon Herr Schuler gave him a very decided little lecture upon the danger of growing up without habits of respect and politeness for others in word and action. At the end of the lecture, he gave Rick so smart a whipping, that he was fully satisfied for that time.

By the end of the summer, Rick had made such progress, that his father, who had been away from home for several months on important business, was completely astonished at the change in his son, when he came to take his family back to the city.

One of the best changes in Rick was the improvement in his manners. Herr Schuler's little lectures, and the way in which Rick had insisted upon having them impressed upon his mind with the long stick, according to the hints given by the fairy, had worked a complete transformation: he had, even in this short time, become a very gentlemanly boy, careful to do right for the sake of doing right, and thoughtful of others' comfort.

During the following winter, he made great progress at the grand school at the capital, to which he was recommended by Herr Schuler; and the carefulness, both in lessons and deportment, which he had already learned, helped him even more than his natural brightness. He was so conscious of this himself, that, whenever he was asked how he came to be so good a scholar, and why he was always so polite and thoughtful, he answered,—

"Herr Schuler taught me how to study and to be mannerly."

As his mother's health was poor, the next summer, it was decided that she should go to the seaside instead of the castle; and Rick spent the summer there with her and Nanette, and was a great comfort to them.

The following summer, however, his mother's health being fully restored, they went back to the castle; and, soon after their arrival, Herr Schuler was invited to pay them a visit with his wife and daughter.

Rick had now become a tall, manly youth, and would have smiled incredulously at one of Nanette's fairy-stories. He knew that there were not, and never had been, any fairies; but he had, for a good while, been greatly perplexed about the woman in red and yellow whom he met in the forest, and who had so cunningly induced him to go to school to Herr Schuler.

In the evening, he said that, if they liked, he would tell them a curious story, which, although it would convince his mother and Nanette and Herr Schuler that he had been no such wonderful boy as they had thought him, was well worth hearing.

He then told them all about his losing his way among the mountains; his meeting with the woman in red and yellow clothing, whom he had believed to be a fairy; the wonderful appearance of the bright and airy giant who had advanced towards him with a whip in his hand, saying, "Ho! ho! ho! ho!" the supposed fairy's terrible warnings and good advice, and how singularly the way out of the mountains had opened before him.

Herr Schuler laughed loud and long.

"So that was the secret of your wonderful docility!" he exclaimed. "As for the giant figure, it was nothing but the mirage which is frequently seen in these mountains: it was a magnified reflection of Rick Lordelle upon the vapor in front of him."

"But how came the figure to have a long whip in his hand?" inquired Rick.

"You must have had a stick in your own hand."

"Oh, yes! I carried my riding-whip in my left hand, and the giant appeared to have a whip in his right hand. But how came the giant to say 'Ho! ho! ho! ho!'?"

"It was, without doubt, the echo of your sobs, from the ledge near you."

"And as for the fairy," said Herr Schiller's daughter, "she was one of the band of gypsies who passed through here about that time; and the smoke you saw in the woods, came from their camp. I remember this woman very well. I saw her the day before you met her, and she had that yellow satin skirt and red waist in a bundle of old clothes she carried: I gave her the old red silk handkerchief myself, for one of her baskets; and she opened the bundle, to put it in with the rest of the clothes."

"And I saw her too!" exclaimed Rick's mother. "She was here at the castle, and begged me to give her some old clothes in exchange for some of her pretty baskets. She showed me an old embroidered yellow satin skirt, which a lady had given her, and asked me if I could give her a waist to go with it. Knowing how much the gypsies like bright colors, I gave her an old red satin waist, which pleased her greatly."

"Oh, yes!" said Rick; "and now I remember her myself. When I first saw her, she was dressed in an old faded calico: she was about the castle some time, and finally went out of the yard carrying her bundle of old clothes with her. I scarcely looked at her at the time, she appeared to be so uninteresting. Nanette was having great trouble with me that morning, trying to get me to read a lesson; and I told her, that, if she did not stop her noise, or tell me a fairy-story, I would slap her in the face, to which she replied, 'Rick Lordelle, you will surely grow up a disgrace to every one who belongs to you!' I remember this distinctly; because, after Zenia foretold what would happen to me if I kept on in my ways, I recollected Nanette had said something like that to me, when she was so vexed with me in the morning."

"As for the paths opening, that is plain enough," added Herr Schuler. "These little woodland paths seldom appear until you are close to them, and the road that opened between the mountains was in one of those narrow defiles which are quite invisible in the distance. Across that marshy district, there are a great many moss-grown stones, which serve for footing, if any one can tell them from the rest of the bog."

"It does not make any difference now," said Rick, "that Zenia turns out to be only a gypsy; for her warnings were just as true, and her advice just as good, as a real fairy's could have been: but I should not have thought so two years ago, and so I am very glad that I took her for one of Nanette's fairies."

After Pierre had finished reading, they all expressed themselves as much pleased with the story: Johnny was especially enthusiastic.

"I thought you didn't like fairy-stories, Johnny," said Sue.

"I never did like one very much before: but, you see, this fairy didn't turn out to be a fairy after all, and every thing she said was true, and really came to pass, so far as the person reading the story can know; and then, there is a good deal of sense in it from beginning to end; and that's the kind of story I like."

"It's just as good as a fairy-story, I think," said Felix; "because you suppose there is a fairy in it, until the very end, and then when you find it was a gypsy, you like the old gypsy just as well as you would a fairy. The worst of it is, I think it is a very long story for me to learn to read well very soon; and so I'm afraid it will be a good while before I get to Boston."

"I don't think it will take you long to learn to read it well, if you pay good attention to my directions," replied Pierre; "and if you want to get on faster at any time, you have only to give more time to the practice."

CHAPTER VIII.

AT THE COTTAGE.

Johnny found plenty of time for undisturbed possession of the sky-room, for Felix was always off on his bicycle in the morning on pleasant days; so that, when Johnny preferred to stay at home, he was sure of the time until noon to himself. When he could not persuade "Prof." to accompany him, Felix generally found Harrison Brown quite ready; and since Harrison was a pleasant, well-disposed boy, Mr. Le Bras had given Felix permission to go with him at any time in the morning. As bicycle-riding was vetoed for the afternoon, Felix had various expedients for amusement during that portion of the day, among which were lawn-tennis at a neighbor's, base-ball with some boys on the park towards evening, and other outdoor recreations. In fact, he was in the house so seldom that Johnny experienced very little inconvenience after the first terror at his coming had subsided. And Felix had never behaved well for so many days in his life before, as since his residence with his uncle: his parents would have been greatly pleased and astonished at his unusual affability and tractableness, which were simply the result of the firm, orderly government under which he found himself placed.

Felix had read to Pierre every morning for two weeks, and at the end of that time accompanied his uncle to Boston, the latter having expressed himself satisfied with the test-reading. Johnny had accompanied them, and, as he was quite familiar with Boston, had shown his cousin the principal sights while his father was transacting the business on which he had come. As soon as Mr. Le Bras was at liberty, he took the boys down the harbor, to Nantasket Beach, after which they returned home.

Felix had made so much improvement, during the two weeks, in reading, that he was now quite ready to take part in the evening readings; and this practice, with the standing instructions Pierre had given him, caused him to make constant improvement.

The morning lessons in the fairy-story had been given by Pierre in his own room, which was the spare chamber. The lesson always began by Pierre's reading the portion of the story he wished Felix to read, while Felix listened to him, with the purpose of imitating him as nearly as possible when his turn came. As Pierre was a good elocutionist, he read very finely, changing his voice admirably; so that, by the second or third lesson, Felix had nearly given up the monotone which had helped to make his own reading so painful to hear. By being made to read over any words that sounded indistinct, Felix soon overcame the defects of his enunciation. Pierre made him spell, by dividing into syllables, all the words he could not pronounce. This discipline was kept up also during the evening readings, for Felix's benefit. Of course, the drill rather detracted from the interest of what Felix read; but no one was inclined to complain, except Sue, who had been strictly charged to exhibit no impatience, or say any thing that could discourage Felix or hurt his feelings. He was certainly making a braver attempt to overcome his deficiencies than any one could have expected of him, and his aunt was certain that the example of Rick in the story helped him not a little. "I think," said Sue one day, "that Rick Lordelle was exactly like Felix in every way,—anyhow, as Felix used to be, whenever we went to see him in New York; though I think he's an ever so much better boy now; and I like him first-rate, when he isn't too rough, and don't get to teasing me awful bad."

By the last of July, Mr. Le Bras was able to leave his business for a while, and accompany the family to his brother's seaside cottage. They started off one pleasant morning, with trunks and valises, a very merry company. Mr. Le Bras himself was almost as light-hearted as a boy at getting away from his office: and Pierre, who was a great lover of the sea, by which he had lived when he was a little boy, was full of anticipations of fishing and hunting excursions; he carried his gun in his hand, and had a fishing basket and tackle in his trunk. As for Johnny, Felix, and Sue, of course they were exceedingly happy: Felix and Sue chattered incessantly.

It was a four hours' journey, with one change of cars. They reached the village nearest the cottage about noon, and found Oliver waiting for them with the carriage. As they were getting out of the cars, an enormous dog jumped upon Felix, barking loudly, and then began to bound about him and the rest of the party with every demonstration of joy possible.

"Why, Clyde!" exclaimed Felix. "Yes, it is Clyde! Of course it is! But how did he ever come here? Where did you find him, Oliver?"

"He jumped off the cars one day, and came right over to the cottage," replied Oliver, with a smiling side-glance at Mr. Le Bras.

"Well, now! if that wasn't knowing of him!" said Felix. "But I wonder how he knew which train to take, and how the conductor came to let him stay on, and how he happened to know just what station to get off at?"

"But you've always heard tell, Felix, that dogs are mighty knowin' creatures," returned Oliver, smiling from ear to ear.

"But they're not quite so knowing as that, after all," said Johnny: "there's some other explanation, if we could only find out."

"I'll tell you just how it was, boys," said Mr. Le Bras, as soon as they were all stowed in the roomy two-horse carriage, and Oliver had started off, with Clyde following behind, wagging his tail joyously. "I think I must confess, now"—

"Oh! you did it, did you?" interrupted Sue. "Before I'd have thought"—

"Hush, Sue!" said her mother: "you must not interrupt papa."

"Well, the long and short of it is, Felix, that it was unpleasant for us to have such a great, warm-hearted dog as Clyde rushing into a city-house, with his feet dusty or muddy, and jumping up on our clothes, and on the furniture, to say nothing of his tracks on the carpets; and so I concluded, after a little observation of his mischief, to send him down to the cottage. But as I didn't know you as well as I do now, and wrongly supposed, you might be vexed with me, and not get over it very easily, if I told you Clyde must be banished from the city, I took him down to my office one morning, wrote a note to Oliver, which I tied to his collar, and then accompanied him to the depot, and put him in charge of the conductor, who agreed to hand him over to the conductor of the other road, with instructions to put him off at this station, where I was certain, if he did not find his way to the cottage himself, some one would carry him there; since I knew Oliver would be well known all about here."

"So that's the trick you played on me!" replied Felix, looking at his uncle with more of an expression of admiration than indignation. "You're a pretty fellow, ain't you? Now, I'll bet I'll play you as good a trick as that before you go home!"

"But I thought conductors would not allow dogs on board the cars," said Johnny.

"The conductor said he would have him tied up in the baggage-car; but I didn't stop to see what disposal he made of him, beyond the fact that he gave him in charge to one of the baggage-men, who said he would see that it was all right. I offered either to buy Clyde a half ticket, or pay his way as freight; but the conductor, who is a friend of mine, said it was unnecessary, and that the other conductor would be glad to oblige him. So Clyde came as a deadhead."

"I'm mighty glad he wasn't lost," said Felix, "and that I didn't spend any of my money advertising him. I don't care so much for the money; but you see, if I'd advertised him, I should have been all the more fooled. I didn't know how to get along without Clyde down here by the water, and I was going to remind you of your promise that I should have another dog, if he didn't turn up before we came to the cottage; but we were all in such a hurry and excitement this morning, that I forgot all about it."

After passing through the village, they came upon a very hard, handsome road perfectly white.

"What makes this road so white?" asked Sue.

"It is a shell road," replied Felix: "it has been covered with clam and oyster shells, and the carriage-wheels have powdered the shells."

"It is a very handsome road," remarked Johnny, "and will be fine for our bicycles."

"Capital!" returned Felix; "for it is a very long road, and even as a floor; it extends two miles at least, as far as two monstrous cottages which are the only ones beyond ours, though ours is a mile this side of them."

The shell road soon led along the beach, and in front of a row of small but pretty cottages built quite closely together. Beyond these cottages were larger summer residences, placed much farther apart. As they drove on, there were no more houses to be seen.

"Why! Where is your cottage, Felix?" asked Johnny.

"Oh! you'll see it in a minute."

They soon came to a sharp turn in the beach, and just ahead was a handsome house in the Queen Anne style.

"Oh! what a pretty house!" exclaimed Sue. "Is that your cottage?"

"No; but ours is just as handsome; I think ours is painted handsomer."

There was a little strip of woods beyond the Queen Anne cottage; but when they were past this obstacle to the view, they came suddenly upon another cottage, which was really a large wooden house, built in fancy style, abounding in odd and pretty windows, balconies, and verandas.

Before Sue had time to ask if this was the cottage, Oliver entered a driveway at the right, which led, with a broad sweep, up to the front-door, and continued around the house.

Oliver's wife met them at the door with,—

"I'm awful glad to see all of you! It's ben dreadful lonesome here without the folks, and nothin' to do to keep one busy."

"You must not suppose, Mary," replied Mrs. Le Bras, "that you will have all the work to do for such a company. Katie will be here to-night: she could not get away this morning very well."

The interior of the cottage was prettily furnished with straw mattings, wicker chairs, light curtains, and other furnishings in style appropriate for a summer residence: nothing was lacking to make it as convenient and comfortable as possible. Mrs. Le Bras had her trunks carried to the chamber facing the water, and told Pierre and the children that they could make a selection of the other chambers to suit themselves, if the boys and Sue came to no disagreement in doing so. Johnny said he thought Felix ought to choose first, because it was his father's cottage; but Felix insisted that Pierre should have the first choice. Pierre said he should like the chamber looking up the road, as that direction, being free from houses, was where he should be most likely to see game. Since that was the most retired room, Felix seemed to think it was the worst choice that could be made; but Pierre said he was perfectly satisfied.

"Felix must choose next," said Johnny, "because he is the next oldest."

"Then, I'll take the room I had last summer, which looks down the beach. To be sure, you can't see down the beach only a little way, on account of the grove: but there's a real nice girl lives in the cottage there; and when she could play with me, she used to hang a blue ribbon out of that window in the corner, which is the only one you can see through the trees. I sha'n't want to play with her this year, because I have other company; but I was glad enough to, last year, for there wasn't a boy or another girl in any of the other cottages around here.—And now it's your turn, Johnny."

"I'll take the corner room next to yours, then, which has one window toward the woods, and two towards the grounds back of the house, where there is such a fine huckleberry pasture in view, with rocks and juniper-trees. Now for you, Sue."

"I think I'll take the little room that opens out of mamma's, because that looks towards the sea too; and although it isn't as big as your rooms, if it gets too little for me any time, I can go right through into mamma's big room. There is a real cunning balcony out of the little room, too, and I can sit out there ever so much."

"Yes," said Felix: "there is a canopy there; and, if you draw it up, it will make it cool and shady in the balcony any time."

"There is the north-west corner room left for company," said Johnny.

"But where will Katie sleep?" asked Sue.

"There are two splendid rooms up the next flight, a good deal like your sky-room at home," replied Felix: "Oliver and his wife have one of them, and Katie can have the other. Come up, and I'll show it to you."

The verdict was that Katie's room was very pleasant indeed, and had the best landward view of any; since you could see through and over the grove, and down the beach from the east window, and far beyond the huckleberry pasture, to a country road in the distance, from the north windows. It had a west window also, looking much farther west than Pierre's room; so that, if he had not already chosen, he thought he should have preferred that room. The boys said, however, that he must not change; for they wanted him on the same floor with themselves. By the time the selection was made, Mary announced dinner and; they went down into the cool dining-room, which looked very inviting, with its neatly set table.

Mr. Le Bras was seated before a platter of roast lamb, with a smoking dish of potatoes by its side; while bread, green peas, and other accompaniments were interspersed at suitable intervals.

"Mrs. Oliver has treated us very handsomely," said Mr. Le Bras; "although we wrote that she must not put herself out, since we could very well wait till Kate arrived, and I had a chance to go marketing."

"Where shall I go to hire a sail-boat, Felix?" inquired Mr. Le Bras when dinner was over.

"Hire a boat? Why, we've got two boats—a row-boat and a sail-boat—of our own!"

"I remember, now, hearing you say so; but as I saw no boat around here, I had forgotten about it. Where are the boats kept?"

"They are down at the pier usually, when they are in use. I'll go and ask Oliver about them."

Oliver soon came in with Felix, and stated that the boats were at the pier which they had noticed just this side of the row of cottages; they had been in the keeping of a man in the village who owned a boat-house, and had not been taken out until Oliver heard Mr. Le Bras was coming; but, the day before, he had told the man to bring them to the pier, and he presumed they would be found there, although he had forgotten to notice as they came past. Felix's father was intending to have a little wharf built out in front of the cottage, but he had not been able to attend to it yet.

"But the beach comes to an end for a while, a little above here," continued Oliver; "and you can run a boat up there, and land by the rocks, when you don't want to go down as far as the pier; but the pier is a handier place to get out and in, if you've got ladies along."

Sue was very anxious then to see the pony and dog-cart which Felix said she could use. Oliver told her he would harness the pony by and by, so that she could drive along the beach.

"But it won't be half so nice to go alone, and the boys don't care any thing about riding in a dog-cart."

"I shouldn't at all wonder," said Mary, who was standing in the kitchen-door, "if Miss Julia, the young lady who lives in the next cottage, would like to ride with you: she has asked to borrow the dog-cart several times herself, when she's had young friends here, and she seems to like it very much. Mr. Le Bras told her she could take it any time she wanted it."

"I wish some one would ask her," said Sue. "Won't you, Felix?"

"Yes: if you and Johnny will come and sit in the front piazza, I'll go and ask her to come over here and get acquainted."

Accordingly, Johnny and Sue sat down in the veranda while Felix ran off towards the cottage. Pierre was just going up the road with his gun.

"Don't you want to get back in time for a sail about four?" asked Mr. Le Bras. "Oliver, who, they say, is a good hand with a boat, is going to take Mrs. Le Bras and myself out about that time, and we should like to have you along."

"Which way shall you go?" inquired Pierre, stopping.

"We thought we would go up toward the cottages above here. Oliver tells me there is a good landing there; and, as I have a little business with a gentleman who lives in one of the cottages, I thought I would make him a call."

"I am going up that way," replied Pierre; "and I will be around about the time you arrive, and come back with you, if you are willing."

"Certainly," replied Mr. Le Bras, who was standing in the front-door: "we will be on the lookout for you."

Presently Felix came back, accompanied by a pleasant-looking girl of about Johnny's age: she had golden-brown wavy hair, and eyes that looked quite blue before she came into the shade of the piazza, after which they appeared to be of a grayish color, with a slight suspicion of brown in them; they were very bright eyes, that seemed to take in every thing at a glance.

"This is my cousin Johnny, Julia, and this is Sue," said Felix, as if he thought a very slight introduction indeed would answer for a little girl like Sue. But Sue pieced out her introduction by saying, "I'm Johnny's sister: but I sha'n't tell that I'm Felix's cousin, because he wouldn't say so himself; and I don't much care, because I've got a good many relations without him."

Julia laughed heartily at this, and Felix looked a little nonplussed.

"I'm real glad there are to be so many young folks here this season," said Julia: "there wasn't any one here last summer, except Felix, without I went ever so far to see them. It wasn't pleasant at all: I was just as homesick as I could be. But now I think we can have very nice times, unless,"—and she looked questioningly at Johnny,—"unless Johnny is as great a tease as Felix is."

"Johnny is not a bit of a tease," said Sue: "I don't know as he ever tried to tease me in his life; though I tease him once in a great while, when I have what he calls one of my 'high times.'"

"He must be a new kind of a boy if he don't tease," returned Julia: "every boy I ever knew liked to tease, but Felix is the very worst boy to plague any one I ever saw."

Felix laughed, and made up a comic face.

"But you liked to play with him last year, or you wouldn't have hung the blue ribbon out of the window," replied Sue.

"Now, you go and tell every thing! that's just like you!" exclaimed Felix, with a look of vexation.

"He didn't see the blue ribbon very often," replied Julia, laughing. "After he had teased me real hard, I wouldn't play with him for ever so long, and that happened pretty often. I guess he wouldn't have got on very well if it hadn't been for a boy who came up from one of the cottages."

"I wonder if Jack is here this year?" said Felix.

"Yes: I saw him one day down by his cottage, firing pebble-stones at a little kitten he had thrown into the water, to keep her from coming ashore. I stopped the carriage, and told him he ought to be ashamed of himself. Then he let the kitten come ashore; and I got out, and took up the poor, shivering little thing, and brought it home. I saw him a while after, and he accused me of stealing his kitten; but I did not pay any attention to him: I didn't believe a boy had any right to a kitten he wanted to keep just for the sake of treating it cruelly. It's a beautiful little tortoise shell; and he'll never get it again, if I can help it!"

They had all been talking so fast that Johnny, who was always careful not to interrupt, and who never forced himself into notice, had not said a word, except to bow, and say "Good-morning," when he was introduced.

"Why don't you say something, Johnny?" whispered Sue in his ear, as Felix went on talking about Jack, saying he was a pretty good fellow to have a gay time with, and he thought he should look him up before long.

"I haven't had a good chance," Johnny whispered back: "I'm waiting for Felix to get through."

"He never will get through," returned Sue: "when he makes a little pause, you just say something as quick as ever you can."

"What if I should set Clyde on the kitten?" said Felix to Julia.

"You'd better not, young man: I'll never forgive you if you do!"

"Just let me get a sight of her, that's all," returned Felix, running off in the direction of the cottage in which Julia lived, looking back, and laughing roguishly as he ran. "Come, Clyde!" he called back; and Clyde, who was lying in the piazza, jumped up and followed him.

"I sha'n't please him by running after him," said Julia: "but if he does set Clyde on the kitten, I've a mind not to have any thing to do with him all summer; he is one of the most annoying boys I ever saw; I only came over because I wanted to get acquainted with the rest of you."

"Felix has been pretty good at our house this season," replied Johnny, "and I don't believe he will tease you this year if father finds it out; for father don't believe in teasing, and he has charge of Felix this summer."

"Then, you don't tease!" returned Julia, with a pleased look. "I am so glad! I think I can have some nice times with you and your sister."

Sue then asked Julia if she would go to ride in the dog-cart with her.

"Yes, indeed! I should like to go very much, any time."

Felix soon came back, saying he could not find the kitten this time, but he should be on the lookout for it.

"I should like to stay longer, if Felix had not begun to tease," said Julia; "but since he has, I think I will go home:" and she rose, and began to go down the steps.

"I wish you wouldn't go yet: I haven't more than half got acquainted," said Sue.

"I'll go home with you, and see if I can find the kitten," remarked Felix, beginning to walk down the steps also, and laughing.

"No, you won't!" replied Julia, sitting down on the steps. "I declare, Felix Le Bras, I won't come over here another time, if you are going to act like this!"

It happened that Mr. Le Bras, who had been sitting in a balcony over the piazza, had heard most of the conversation between the children. He now appeared at the door, and said, "Is this the young lady who lives near us?"

"Yes," replied Johnny: "she came to make us a call."

"And Felix is teasing her," said Sue.

"How is that, Felix?" asked Mr. Le Bras, in a tone of feigned surprise. "I hope you would not be so ungentlemanly, and towards a visitor too!"

"Oh! I'm only joking with her a little," returned Felix.

"Is the joke amusing to you or to her?"

"Why, to me."

"And it is very annoying to me," said Julia.

Mr. Le Bras came out, sat down in a chair on the piazza, and began to talk with Julia. She seemed much pleased, and conversed with him very prettily.

"I want you to come in now, Julia, and see Mrs. Le Bras," he said, after they had conversed for about ten minutes, "so that we shall all be acquainted with you." He then took Julia up into the balcony where Mrs. Le Bras was sitting.

"I think you've been a good deal of a tell-tale this morning, Sue," said Felix, looking quite cross.

"I haven't told any thing but the truth," replied Sue, quite decidedly.

"But you know, Sue," said Johnny, "that you shouldn't tell any thing any one would not like to have told, unless there is some very necessary reason."

"I didn't think when I told about the blue ribbon," replied Sue: "and I told papa, because I thought Felix ought not to tease Julia; but I won't tell any more, unless Felix is very troublesome indeed."

"All the fun there is in being with girls is to tease them: every one knows that," replied Felix. "I don't tease you, Sue, because you are not as old as I am; but it's all right to tease Julia, and she don't care half as much as she pretends."

"But you wouldn't really set Clyde on her kitten, would you?" asked Johnny.

"Why, of course I would! What harm would it do? It would only scare the kitten a little, and make her bristle up her tail, and run up a tree."

"How would you like to have a great, savage-looking animal run after you?" replied Johnny.

"Perhaps I shouldn't like it. But what has that to do with it?"

"The kitten wouldn't like it, either," said Sue.

This putting himself in the place of a kitten, imagining her terrors, and pitying them, was an entirely new idea to Felix; but he was not willing to admit that he saw any force to the argument. "Oh! girls have queer notions," he said, "and Johnny's just like them. For my part, I'm going to do as other boys do: I ain't going to be a girl-boy. I shall tease Julia some; and if Sue wants to keep on being a tell-tale, she can."

Julia then came running down-stairs.

"I've had a splendid visit," she said, "and I'm going home to tell mamma about it. Now, don't you follow me, Felix!"

She ran down the steps and towards home like a flash. Possibly it might have been Felix's intention to follow her with Clyde; but as his uncle appeared at the door just after Julia left, he sat still on the steps.

"That is a nice, bright girl," said Mr. Le Bras: "you are very lucky to have such a neighbor, children."

Mr. Le Bras then returned to the balcony, and Sue accompanied him. Felix whistled to Clyde, and went to the barn to see Oliver. But Johnny continued sitting in the piazza for some time, looking at the light waves that curled up over the beach in front of the cottage, and gazing off at the blue expanse, here and there dotted with a white sail. He was interested, too, in the flight of the sea-gulls, of which a great many were darting about over the water. For once, when alone, he forgot to wish for a book to read.

CHAPTER IX.

LOST.

They all started out, about four o'clock, on pleasure excursions, that first day of their arrival at the cottage. Mr. and Mrs. Le Bras walked down to the pier, and embarked in the sail-boat with Oliver. Sue and Julia went riding in the dog-cart, first going to the pier to see the party set sail, and then riding on down the beach to the village. Felix and Johnny, having found their bicycles at the baggage-house, near the depot-building, went up the beach. As they came through the village, they met Julia and Sue, who were driving leisurely about the streets.

"Don't you wish you could ride on a bicycle, Julia?" said Felix, as he shot past at his best pace.

"No," called back Julia, "not with you!"

Johnny, who came after at a slower rate, lifted his hat politely, saying, "I hope you will have a very pleasant ride."

"I like your brother ever so much," said Julia to Sue. "I think he is very manly and polite."

"Felix thinks he is the manliest," replied Sue.

"I don't," replied Julia, with emphasis.

As the boys passed the cottage, Clyde, who had been commanded to stay at home by Felix, ran towards them, barking loudly.

"You can come on now, Clyde," said Felix; and the dog bounded happily after them up the road.

"It will be fun to go on up this way," remarked Felix; "because I've never been any farther than the cottages, where the shell road ends. We'll have to go across through a kind of cart-track after we get there, in order to cross over to the regular country road, which is a good deal back from the water. You can see the road when we get to the cottages, and it leads to the Point, where they blast rocks. They're to work there all the time, Oliver says. I didn't explore this region much last year, because I hadn't a bicycle; as for a pony-cart, it isn't worth any thing for exploring; but if you are on a bicycle, you can go over stone walls, if you want to, and then set your wheel up again and go on."

For the whole length of the shell road, the white-sanded beach was just at their left, with waves dashing gently in and retreating. The expanse of water beyond extended a long distance, and was bounded by a blue, misty strip of land that looked almost like a dark cloud lying along the horizon. There were many sail-boats visible, and now and then a yacht, a schooner, or a steamboat.

"We can see no end of yachts by going down to the Harbor," said Felix.

"Where is the Harbor?"

"Oh! they generally take the cars, and go away down below the village, you know: but we could go on our bicycles well enough; it isn't so very far. If you go down to the town, you can see all sorts of vessels: sometimes there's a whale-ship in. And there are two or three big steamboats that go from there. There are propellers and tugs and barges and schooners, and lots of excursion steamers, and a school-ship, and some of the cunningest little steamers, not much bigger than a real big sail-boat, which run between the Harbor and the town; they only charge you ten cents each way; it's a fine sail, too, past the fort and up the river."

"I should like to go to the town some day," said Johnny, who was quite captivated with this description, as he had never had an opportunity to see much shipping, except from a distance.

"We can go down there most any time: there are some things I want to buy, and they have all kinds of shops there."

So the boys talked, on one subject and another, as they rode up the shell road; and at length they reached the cottages, just beyond which the road ended.

"Let's get off here, and wait until father and mother come up," said Johnny; for Felix had wheeled around, as if to go back a distance, after they had reached the end of the road, which terminated very abruptly.

"I'm going back to the cart-path," replied Felix. "Didn't you see it as we came by?"

"Yes: I noticed some tracks of wheels going across a pasture."

"That's it. I guess we sha'n't have any trouble getting along through it to the road. If we do, we can get off and walk across. Let's just go and try it a way, and then we can come back and wait."

Accordingly, the boys rode back to the cart-path, which was a little distance below the cottages. As it had been considerably travelled, they found a very good road for their bicycles in the middle of the track, which had been worn by the feet of the horses and oxen.

"We may have to get off in that rocky place," said Johnny; "but I think we can get along very well. How far is it to the road?"'

"Oliver said it is a short half-mile."

As they were about to turn back from the lane, after their exploration, they observed a sail-boat coming toward the shore.

"There they are!" said Felix. "I saw that sail-boat as we were coming along; but it was so far off, I couldn't be sure they were in it, as there were so many boats around."

The boys rode back to a little wharf between the two cottages, and alighted. There was a row of bathing-houses back on the beach at one side of the wharf, against an end of which they leaned their bicycles. They then went and sat down on the wharf, with their feet hanging over the side. The sail-boat was still some distance off.

"What enormous cottages these are!" remarked Johnny: "there must be large families in them, to need so much room."

"No: that largest one has only two folks in it besides the servants,—a man and his wife,—unless they have company; and there are only four persons in the other family,—a man and his wife and two grown-up daughters. But the men who own the houses are millionnaires, and my father says they build big houses to use up some of their money: they don't know what else to do with it."

"I should feel lonely in such a great house, unless it had a good many folks in it," replied Johnny. "I think I should look up some folks to enjoy it with me, or else I should think of some other use for my money."

"I would build a great, magnificent ship, and sail around the world in it," said Felix.

"That wouldn't be bad; only I don't see any use in having the ship so large, unless you wanted to take a great many friends with you."

"So here are the bicyclers!" said a voice behind them; and turning quickly, they saw Pierre just crossing the road.

"What luck?" asked Johnny.

"I have merely a brace of wild-ducks for to-morrow's dinner. After I had secured them, I did not look any farther for game: I have been talking with the men over at the Point."

"That is where we are going," replied Felix; "but we thought we would wait until the boat got in. You're going back in the boat, aren't you?"

"Yes: I think so. I have walked about enough for one time."

Pierre sat down by the boys, and showed them the ducks, which he had shot down by the Point.

After the boat landed, Mr. Le Bras went up to the larger of the cottages.

The gentleman who lived in the cottage was one of Mr. Le Bras' clients. Mrs. Le Bras said Oliver could take the boys for a little sail, if they wished; so they and Pierre got on board, and sailed about until Mr. Le Bras came out of the cottage.

"Did you have a nice time?" asked Johnny, as his father joined them at the wharf.

"I had a pleasant call; but I should be very lonely if I lived in that great house, with no young persons around."

"Yes," said Mrs. Le Bras: "put some children in there, and as many more grown folks to look out for them, and it would be quite a fine place."

It appeared the gentleman was off in his yacht, and no one was at home but his wife: she stood in the piazza to see them off, and bowed politely. She was a somewhat sober-looking lady. Mr. Le Bras said she was very kind and pleasant, and he was glad to have made her acquaintance. Mr. Le Bras, having promised her husband, Mr. Frothingham, that he would let him know when he arrived at the beach, had concluded to call and inform him in person. Mr. Frothingham was anxious that Mr. Le Bras should take a trip with him in his yacht; but Mr. Le Bras had decided that he should not be able to go at present, since he wished to see his family fully domesticated at the cottage first. Mrs. Frothingham said she and her husband intended to come down to call upon their new neighbors as soon as possible.

"So you are going to the Point, boys?" said Mr. Le Bras, when he and his wife and Pierre were seated in the boat, and Oliver was preparing to put off from the wharf.

"Yes, sir," replied Felix: "we want to see them blast rocks."

"I don't know about that," said Mrs. Le Bras, looking rather anxious.

"That is all right," replied Mr. Le Bras. "Johnny knows enough about gunpowder not to go into any danger, and the men will look out for them too. Felix, you'll be careful, won't you? Don't go anywhere unless Johnny goes with you."

"All right," said Felix.

Mrs. Le Bras said no more, although the shade of anxiety had not wholly vanished from her face.

After the boat had put off, the boys mounted their bicycles, and rode down to the cart-track. They were able to proceed for some distance without dismounting; but finally, coming to a place where there were a good many stones, they alighted, and walked some distance, wheeling their bicycles by their sides. At length the path became smooth again; and they resumed their wheels, which they were able to keep for the rest of the distance to the road. The street was level and quite broad, and although not smooth, like the shell road, was sufficiently so for comfortable wheeling.

"We don't have to turn into any other road to get to the Point, do we?" said Johnny.

"No: we keep right on, for about two miles."

There were frequent farmhouses on the road; and just before they reached the Point, they came to a small village.

"I shouldn't wonder if the men who work in the quarry live here," remarked Johnny.

"Yes: see what good stone steps there are at the doors."

"It's very nice granite too. Notice what an even grain. I heard father and Pierre talking about it; and they said this stone is sent to New York and Philadelphia for very fine buildings, and that nice monuments are made of it."

Presently the water appeared before them, but as yet no quarry, only green fields ending abruptly against the blue of the water. But after proceeding a very little farther, they found themselves overlooking a very different scene. They were at the top of a gradual incline to the water's brink, covered over with stone ledges broken into quarries, among which a large number of men were working busily. Near the water, the rock was worn by the waves into very fantastic shapes; and, as there was a steep ascent from the shore, it formed natural steps and terraces in many places.

"Let's go down there by the water," said Felix: "it's always great fun walking about among such holes and windings in the rocks, where the waves keep rolling up to catch you. It's as good as a game of tag."

"Yes: I would like to go down there presently. I never saw rocks so much worn by water as they are. It has taken Nature a good many hundred years to do all that chiselling, but she's made handsomer work of it than these men have. There's going to be a blast now. See those men running this way. Let's go and find what luck they've had, when it's over."

The boys got off of their bicycles, and, a moment after, there was a loud report. The men then went back to the place where the explosion had taken place, and the boys followed them. They found the stone very evenly split.

"This granite don't give you much trouble about splitting evenly," said Johnny to the men.

"If it did, we shouldn't be at work here, year after year."

"I didn't know there was any difference in granite," said Felix.

"There's just as much difference in granite as there is in boys," replied the other man, winking at his companion: "you know there's good boys and bad boys, dull boys and smart boys, and boys all the way between."

"I know of a granite quarry," remarked Johnny, "where they don't get out any stone better than is used for making the cellars and underpinnings of common houses, and for walls and rough buildings."

"There's plenty of that kind of stone for miles around," replied one of the men: "the stone just here at the Point is all there is that's worth much of any thing, all along this part of the State."

"I'd like to know how that happened," said Johnny; "but perhaps even a geologist couldn't tell, for sure."

"What's the use of knowin'?" returned the man: "the rock's here, and that's all there is to it."

"Let's go down by the water now," said Felix.

"Very well," replied Johnny: "only we mustn't stay too long, because father told us to be back before dark. What time is it by your watch?"

It happened that Felix had not wound his watch at the proper time; so when he took it out to look at it, he saw it had stopped. "It is a quarter-past five," he replied, beginning to wind the watch.

"Then, it is a good deal earlier then I supposed: I thought it must be pretty near six. We came over the road faster than I thought, or else the time at the wharf seemed longer than it was: I'll go down a little while, then."

After they had clambered among the ragged and tortuous rocks, covered with sea-mosses and mussels, dodging the inrunning waves merrily for about fifteen minutes, Johnny said it was time to go.

"But this is great fun," replied Felix. "Let's go down by that long gully."

"No: we shall be late home. Besides, we can come here earlier, almost any day, and stay as long as we please."

"Anyhow, let's sit down here a minute, and watch those wild-ducks by the shore: see how splendidly they swim."

"Yes. I think Pierre must have shot at them in the water. I'll sit down just a minute."

At the end of a minute, Johnny was up and on his way to the place where he had left his bicycle. Felix followed slowly, calling him "Grandfather Prim" for being so particular about getting home early.

"I say, Johnny, there aren't any pickpockets or kidnappers about here! What's the matter if we don't get home till after dark? It's going to be bright moonlight to-night."

Johnny made no reply, but walked on, and regained his bicycle.

"Are you going home with me?" he said, as Felix sat down on a block of granite, still laughing, and trying to tease him.

"Oh! I an't in any hurry, and it wouldn't take me long to overtake you if you were half way home. Besides, Oliver told me of a nearer way, and so I can cut across and get home before you."

"If there is a nearer way, we had better take it; for don't you see it is clouding up? I don't believe we shall have any moonlight to-night." As he said this, Johnny mounted his bicycle.

Felix now noticed, for the first time, that it was growing suddenly darker, and that a heavy cloud was rising from the waterside. He did not care about going home in total darkness and a rain-storm, with the wind blowing from the ocean: he had seen enough such storms the year before, to know what they meant.

"You saw that other road we passed, just the other side of the quarrymen's houses?" he said, stepping upon his bicycle.

"Yes, I noticed it. But come on: we can be talking while we ride, and there is no time to lose."

The quarrymen were now beginning to leave work.

"I don't understand why the men are leaving work," continued Johnny: "it isn't six o'clock, and it won't rain right off."

One of the men was just passing him; and Johnny said, "Do you always stop working before six o'clock?"

"It's after six," replied the man. "If you live far off, you'd better make haste; for there's a hard storm coming up."

"We are staying in a cottage down the shell road," said Johnny. "We came up the shell road, and then crossed over to the other road by a cart-path. Can you tell us of a nearer way home?"

"Yes: keep on this road till you come to the road that turns off, and then keep on that till you get home."

"It's just as I told you," said Felix, going rapidly ahead of Johnny. "Oliver told me all about it. It's that road we saw as we came along."

By this time Johnny was ahead of the man, who had stopped to speak with another of the quarrymen. He hurried on, and overtook Felix. "I don't understand," he said, "why our road turns to the left from this road, when we are going to the cottages on the right."

"It doesn't go much to the left; and Oliver said it is a slant road that turns and comes right out on the shell road, just this side of the lower cottages."

The boys now rode at their best pace, Felix keeping so far ahead of Johnny that he was some distance upon the other road when Johnny reached the turn, and quite out of sight; for the road made a sharp angle at this point, and the space between was filled with trees and underbrush. Johnny hastened as much as possible, and soon came in sight of Felix, who was going slower, now that he was sure Johnny had followed around the turn; for he had been rather afraid he would go back on the old road rather than trust to his guidance, even though he had quoted Oliver's advice.

"I hope you're all right about the road," called out Johnny; "but, you see, your watch was wrong; and this road slants in the wrong direction, unless it turns and crosses the other one somewhere.

"You'll find it will turn before long," replied Felix: "yes, here it turns now!"

It was true: it did turn very slightly to the right at a point just ahead, while another road branched off of it to the left. This was enough to quiet Johnny's fears, and they proceeded rapidly on their way, Felix accommodating his pace to Johnny's for the sake of the company; for it was now quite dusky on account of the clouds, and the wind was beginning to blow hard.

The woods, which had been quite thin at their right when they entered the road, soon became thicker, and presently there were woods upon each side: they were passing through a strip of forest. It was so dark here that they could not see distinctly, and were obliged to ride slowly for fear of getting out of the road, or coming across some obstacle in their track.

"If father and mother would not be so frightened, we had better go back to the village at the quarry, and stay till the storm is over, or until morning," said Johnny anxiously, after they had proceeded some distance through the woods.

"I an't going back through these woods," replied Felix, "not if I once get out of them; and don't you see that kind of opening ahead?"

Johnny had been looking down to see, if possible, where he was riding; but now, glancing forward, he saw a lightish spot in the distance at the left.

"If that is the opening in the road, this road don't lead anywhere near home," replied Johnny; "but I guess it must be, for I think I can see that the road turns around just ahead of us. Don't you see how thick and dark it is, right ahead, like thick woods?"

"Yes, I noticed that; and that's what made me think the light spot you see over there through the trees was where the road comes out of the woods. We might just as well go out there, and ask to stop at some farmhouse, as to try to go back to the village through the woods."

"I don't see what makes that place look so light," said Johnny: "I shouldn't suppose that just the difference between the woods and outside would make it as light, unless it has cleared off; and if it has, I should think we could see some of the light here in the woods."

"We'll find out pretty soon: here we are at the turn, now."

As they passed on around the turn, and beyond, it became much lighter: they could see their way with tolerable distinctness. As they approached the bright spot, which was now plainly the end of the woods, the light increased.

"The sun is certainly shining," remarked Felix, "and so we can get home some way: though I don't intend to go through these woods again."

When they came out of the woods, they found themselves facing a meadow, with the view just beyond obstructed by a thick fog. The sky was dark with heavy clouds; and the road they were on led, at the left, directly down upon the beach, upon which the surf was rolling heavily. Just outside the woods, the road continued to the right, at nearly right angles with that upon which they had been travelling. Close by the water, and almost within reach of the boiling surf, was the lighthouse, which explained the mystery of the bright spot which had so puzzled Johnny. The wind here was blowing a gale. It was no longer possible for them to guide their wheels. They dismounted, and stood shivering in their light garments before the gale.

"It seems to me that if we take this road at the right, it might lead us home," said Johnny.

"You don't get me trying any more roads, until I am sure," returned Felix: "I don't see how Oliver came to get us into such a fix. Let's go over to the lighthouse, and ask the way home. If we've got to go through those woods again, we'll have to stay till morning. I guess we'd better stay, anyhow, if they're willing."

"No," returned Johnny firmly. "I must get home to-night, if possible: it would frighten my mother almost to death, I am afraid, if we didn't get back. But, of course, we had better go to the lighthouse, and inquire our way. Let's leave our wheels here in the road; for we must come back here on our way home, probably."

Being relieved of the bicycles, they proceeded to the lighthouse as rapidly as the wind, blowing from the sea, would allow, and soon reached the keeper's dwelling, which was a stone building attached to the lighthouse. They stood for some time upon the steps, buffeted by the strong wind from the ocean at the left, the spray from the waves dashing in their faces as the breeze blew it towards them. They were only a few yards from the shore.

"We didn't rap loud enough," said Felix, pounding with both hands upon the door: "the waves and wind make such a noise, they can't hear us."

"I wondered how the wind came to make such a strange noise, when we were coming through the woods," said Johnny: "it was the rush of the surf."

"I came over here several times with my father, last year," said Felix: "we used to come over whenever we had company, to show them the ocean and lighthouse. I have seen the man who keeps the lighthouse so many times, that I think he will remember me."

Still no one came to the door.

"They can't hear, on account of the surf," said Johnny.

"Let's both pound together, then."

So both of the boys rapped as loudly as they could upon the door, with both hands.

"The lighthouse-keeper has a boy about seventeen years old," said Felix. "He told me there was an awful undertow here. I hope he will come to the door, for I am sure he will remember me."

"Who is it?" asked a youthful voice inside the door. At first the boys could not distinguish the words; but after shouting back, and putting their cars close to the door, they soon made out the repeated inquiry, although it sounded very faint.