"Oh, bother!" cried Bertie; "I wasn"t doing any harm. I can take jolly good care of myself, so don"t you worry about me." And he rushed impatiently after the others, who were already picking up their pennies from the rail.
"It"s crushed them ever so flat!" exclaimed Aggie Wright, triumphantly holding up a dinted copper which seemed to be several sizes too large.
"You can scarcely see which is heads and which is tails," said Arnold Rokeby.
"Just look at my halfpenny," said Belle; "it"s twice as big as it was before."
"Why, so it is! Any one would take it for a penny if they didn"t look at it closely. Come along. They want to shut the gates again for a luggage train, and we shall have to clear out. We"re all going to the Pixies"
Steps. Are you two coming with us?"
"No, I think not," replied Belle. "It"s too hot to walk so far. Isobel and I just want to stroll about."
"Then good-bye. We"re off.--Come along, Cecil. For goodness" sake don"t go grubbing in the hedge now after caterpillars. Even if it _is_ a woolly bear, you"ll find plenty more another day.--Here, Arnold, you young monkey, give me my cap." And the Rokebys tore away up the road with a characteristic energy that even the blazing August heat could not quench.
"If we go behind Hunt"s farm," said Isobel, "we can turn up the path to the churchyard, and get on to the cliffs just over the quay. It"s a short cut, and much nicer than the road."
So they crossed the line again by the footbridge, pa.s.sing the station, where the porter, overcome with the heat, was having a comfortable snooze on his hand-barrow; then, facing towards the sea, they climbed the steep track which zigzagged up the face of the cliff to the old church. The door was open, and the children stole inside for a minute and stood quietly gazing round the nave. It was cool and shady there, with the rich glow from the stained-gla.s.s windows falling in checkered rays of blue and crimson and orange upon the twisted pillars and the carved oak pews. The choir was practising in the chancel, and as they sang, the sun, slanting through the diamond panes of the south transept, made a very halo of glory round the head of the ancient, time-worn monument of St. Alcuin, the Saxon abbot, below. Crosier and mitre had long ago been chipped away by the ruthless hands of Cromwell"s soldiers, but they had spared the face, and the light shone full on the closed eyes and the calm, sleeping mouth. Isobel moved a little nearer, trying to spell out the half-effaced letters of the inscription. She knew the story of how the pagan Nors.e.m.e.n had sacked the abbey, and had murdered the abbot on the steps of the altar, where he had remained alone to pray when his monks had fled to safety; but the words were in Latin, and she could not read them.
"For all the saints who from their labours rest," chanted the choir softly, the music of their voices mingling strangely with the shouts of the children at play which rose up from the beach below.
"He looks as though he were resting," thought Isobel; "not dead--only just sleeping until he was wanted again. I suppose he"s one of the "saints in light" now. What a long, long time it is since he lived here!
I wonder if he knows they built a church and called it St. Alcuin"s after him."
"Here"s the verger coming," whispered Belle, pulling at her hand. "I think we"d better go."
"Let us sit down; shall we?" said Isobel, when they were out in the glare of the sunshine once more on the broad flagged path which led from the church door to the steps looking down on to the sea.
"Not here, though," replied Belle; "I don"t like gravestones--they make me feel horrid and creepy."
"Under the lich-gate, then," suggested Isobel. "It"ll be cooler, for it"s in the shade, and there"s a seat, too."
"What a simply broiling day!" said Belle, settling herself as luxuriously as possible in the corner, and pulling off her hat to fan her hot face. "I don"t like such heat as this; it takes my hair out of curl," tenderly twisting one of her flaxen ringlets into its proper orthodox droop.
"It"s jolly here. We get a little wind, and we can watch everything all round," said Isobel, sitting with her chin in her hands, and gazing over the water to where the herring fleet was tacking back to the harbour.
The children could scarcely have chosen a sweeter spot to rest. Below them lay the sea, a broad flat expanse of blue, getting a little hazy gray on the horizon, and with a greenish ripple where it neared the rocks, upon which its waves were always dashing with a dull, booming sound.
The old town, with its red roofs and poppy-filled gardens, made such a spot of brightness against the blue sea that it suggested the brilliant colouring of a foreign port, all the more so in contrast to the gray tower of the church behind and the wind-swept yew trees which had somehow managed to survive the winter storms. The gra.s.s had been mown in the churchyard, and filled the air with a fragrant scent of hay; a big b.u.mble-bee buzzed noisily over a bed of wild thyme under the wall, and a swallow was feeding a row of young ones upon the ridged roof of the s.e.xton"s cottage. In the great stretch of blue above, the little fleecy clouds formed themselves into snowy mountains with valleys and lakes between, a kind of dream country in purest white, and Isobel wondered whether, if one could sail straight on to the very verge of the distance where sea and sky seemed to meet, one could slip altogether over the invisible line that bounds the horizon, and find oneself floating in that cloudland region.
"It"s like the edge of heaven," she thought. "I think the saints must live there, and the cherubim and seraphim much farther and higher up--right in the blue part. One could never see _them_; but perhaps sometimes on a day like this the saints might come back a little way out of the light and nearer to the earth where they used to live, and if one looked very hard one might manage to catch a glimpse of them just where the sun"s shining on that white piece."
"O blest communion! fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle; they in glory shine!"
came wafted through the open church door, the sound of the singing, rather far off and subdued, seeming to join in harmony with the lap of the waves, the hum of the bees, the cries of the sea-gulls, the twittering of the swallows, and all the other glad voices of nature. It looked such a beautiful, joyful, delightful, glorious world that Isobel sat very quietly for a time just drinking in the sweet air and the sunshine, and feeling, without exactly knowing why, that it was good to be there.
"Are you asleep?" said Belle at last, in an injured tone; "you haven"t spoken to me for at least five minutes. I"m sure it must be getting near tea-time. Let us go now."
"All right," said Isobel, recalling herself with a start--she had almost forgotten Belle"s existence for the moment. "It"s so nice on these steps, one feels as if one were up above everything. It"s like being on the roof of the world. Perhaps that was why St. Alcuin and the monks built the abbey here; it seems so very near to the sky."
"What a queer girl you are sometimes!" said Belle, looking at her curiously; "I believe you"re fond of old churches and musty-fusty monuments. Come along. We"ll buy some sweets or some pears as we go home."
It was a change indeed from the cliff top to the bustle and noise of the little town below. Most of the fish-stalls were empty in the market, for the stock of herrings and mackerel had been sold off earlier in the day; but a travelling bazaar was in full swing, and exhibited a bewildering display of toys, tea-cups, mugs, tin cans, looking-gla.s.ses, corkscrews, and many other wonderful and miscellaneous articles, any of which might be bought for the sum of one penny. The main street, narrow and twisting, ran steeply uphill, the high gabled houses crowding each other as if they were trying to peep over one another"s shoulders; from the side alleys came the mingled odours of sea-weed and frying fish, and a persistent peddler hawking brooms shouted himself hoa.r.s.e in his efforts to sell his wares. Under the wide archway at the corner by the market stood a tiny fruit-shop, where piles of plums and early apples, bunches of sweet peas and dahlias, baskets of tomatoes, lettuces, broad beans, cauliflowers, and cabbages, were set forth to tempt customers.
"There are the most delicious-looking pears," said Belle, peeping through the small square panes of the window, "and so cheap. I shall go in and get some."
"Yes, love, six for a penny," said the woman, a motherly-looking soul, as Belle entered the shop and inquired the price. "They"re fine and ripe now, and won"t do you no harm. A pen"orth, did you say?" And picking out six of the best pears, she put them into a paper bag and handed them to Belle, who, turning to leave the shop, laid down on the counter the coin which she had placed that afternoon on the railway line.
The woman did not look at it particularly, but naturally supposing from the size that it was a penny, she swept it carelessly into the till.
"Belle! Belle!" whispered Isobel, catching her friend hastily by the arm as she went out through the door, "do you know what you"ve done? You paid her your big halfpenny instead of a penny."
"Oh, did I?" said Belle, flushing. "I didn"t notice. I never looked at it."
"What a good thing I saw the mistake! Give her a proper penny, and get the halfpenny back."
Belle fumbled in her pocket in vain.
"I don"t believe I have another penny, after all," she said at last. "I thought I had several. I must have lost them while we were up on the cliffs, I suppose."
"What _are_ we to do?" exclaimed Isobel anxiously. "We can"t take the pears when we haven"t paid for them properly; it would be stealing."
"I"ll bring her another halfpenny to-morrow," suggested Belle.
"But suppose before that she looks at the money and finds out; she"ll think we have been trying to cheat her."
"Perhaps she won"t remember who gave it to her."
"Oh! but that wouldn"t make it any better," said Isobel. "Look here; let us take back the bag, and tell her we paid the wrong money, and ask her to give us only half the pears."
"Very well," answered Belle. "You go in, will you? I don"t like to."
Isobel seized the parcel, and quickly re-entered the shop.
"I"m ever so sorry," she said breathlessly, "but we find we"ve made such a dreadful mistake. We meant to give you a penny, and it wasn"t a penny at all--only a halfpenny squashed out flat on the railway line; so, please, will you take back half the pears, because we neither of us have a proper penny in our pockets."
The woman laughed.
"I didn"t think to notice what you give me," she said. "But you"re an honest little girl to come and tell me. No, I won"t take back none of the pears. You"re welcome to them, I"m sure."
"It was very nice of her," said Belle sweetly, peeling the juicy fruit slowly with her penknife as they turned away down the street. "So stupid of me to make such a mistake! Have another, darling; they"re quite delicious, though they are so small."
Isobel walked along rather silent and preoccupied. Though she would not allow it to herself, down at the bottom of her heart there was the uncomfortable suspicion that Belle had known all the time, and had meant to give the wrong coin.
"She _couldn"t_!" thought Isobel. "She _must_ have made a mistake, and thought she really had a penny in her pocket. Yet at the level crossing she certainly said the halfpenny was all she had until she got her weekly money to-morrow. Perhaps she forgot. Oh dear! I know she didn"t mean to cheat or tell stories--I"m sure she wouldn"t for the world--but somehow I _wish_ it hadn"t happened."