Part 24 (2/2)

Kitty looked at her in pained surprise. It seemed to her that Anna's way of speaking was quite irreverent. She longed to know, yet shrank from asking her, if she scorned, too, those other stories, so precious and real to Kitty, the story of King Arthur in his hidden resting-place, waiting to be roused from his long sleep; of Tristram and Iseult asleep in the little chapel beneath the sea; of--oh, a hundred others of giants and fairies, witches and spectres. But she held her peace rather than hear them scoffed at and discredited.

The suns.h.i.+ne, chased by a cloud and a fresh little breeze, disappeared.

Anna s.h.i.+vered and looked about her.

”Oh, how gloomy and lonely it all looks directly the sun goes in!” she cried. ”I should hate to be here in the dark, or in a storm. Shouldn't you, Kitty? I think I should die of fright; I know I should if I were here alone.”

”I'd love to be here in a storm,” said Kitty firmly, ”a real thunderstorm. It would be grand to watch it all from the top of the tors. I don't think I would very much mind being up here all night either. You see, there is nothing that could possibly hurt one, no wild beasts or robbers. Bad people would be afraid to come.”

”I think it would be perfectly dreadful,” shuddered Anna. ”You would never know who was coming round the rocks, or who was hiding; and robbers could come behind you and catch you, and you wouldn't be able to see or hear them until they were right on you; and you might scream and scream with all your might and main and no one would hear you.”

”If I sneered at giants, I wouldn't talk of robbers if I were you,” said Dan severely. ”Imagine robbers coming to a place like this!

Why, there's nothing and n.o.body to rob.”

”They would come here to hide, of course, not to rob,” said Anna crus.h.i.+ngly, and Dan felt rather small.

Betty and Tony began to feel bored.

”I am going to get sticks for the fire,” said Betty. ”Come along, Tony.

You others can come, too, if you like.”

”Betty is beginning to think of her tea already,” laughed Dan, but they all joined her in her search--not that there was any need to search, for dry sticks and furze bushes lay all around them in profusion.

”Oh, here's the cromlech,” cried Kitty, coming suddenly on the great rock, which was poised so lightly on top of other great rocks that it would sway under the lightest touch, yet had remained unmoved by all the storms and hurricanes of the ages that had pa.s.sed over it. She ran lightly up and on to it, and stood there swaying gently, the breeze fluttering out her skirts and flus.h.i.+ng her cheeks.

”You must make a wish while you are standing on it, and then if you can make the rock move you will get your wish,” explained Betty to Anna.

”It isn't every one who can. I don't suppose you could, 'cause you don't believe in things like we do.”

Nevertheless Anna was bent on trying, and grew quite cross because the rock would not move for her. ”No, I don't believe it,” she snapped.

”You Cornish people are so suppositios; and it is _dreadfully_ ignorant to be so. Mother said so.”

Dan fairly shrieked with delight; he always did when Anna or Betty used a wrong word, particularly if it was a long one.

”Though it is so early, I am going to light the fire now,” said Kitty, anxious to make a diversion and prevent squabbles, ”because I want to smell the smell of the burning fuz.”

Which she did then and there; and then, perhaps in absent-mindedness, she put the kettle on, and it boiled before any one could believe the water was even warm, and then, of course, there was nothing to be done but make the tea and drink it. But the air up there was so wonderful that no matter how quickly the meals came the appet.i.tes were ready.

”The smell of the smoke was feast enough in itself,” Kitty said.

But she did not omit to take a liberal share of more solid food as well.

And oh! how good it all tasted--the tea, the bread and b.u.t.ter, the saffron cake, all had a flavour such as they never had elsewhere, and the air was growing fresh enough to make the hot tea very acceptable and comfortable.

They did not sit long after they had done, for it really was beginning to grow chilly.

”Now you had all better go and have a game of some kind or other,” said Kitty, ”and I will pack the baskets ready to go into the cart, and then I'll come and play too.”

It took her longer, though, than she had counted on to pack all the things so that they would travel safely, and she had put them in and taken them out again so many times that when at last she had done, and glanced up with a sigh of relief to look for the others, she saw with dismay that the short winter's day was well-nigh over. The sun had disappeared quite suddenly, leaving behind it a leaden, lowering sky, while in the distance hung a thick mist, which told of heavy rain not far off.

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