Dick’s uncle’s name was Uncle John. He was very much pleased to see that Dick liked his old house and his old swords and armour; but he said: “I know where there are the remains of some houses a very great deal older than mine. If you would like to see them, we will go for a walk to-morrow and try to find them.” The next day they set out for their walk--Dick and his uncle John and a collie and two terriers--and Uncle John said: “We will call for Joe first.” “Is Joe a dog?” Dick asked. “No,” said his uncle; “Joe is a boy. He is nine, like you, and he lives in the house with the green gate.” But Joe said he was afraid he could not come for a walk, because his cousin David had come to spend the holidays with him, and they had made a plan to go fishing. So Uncle John invited David, too, and they all set off together. After they had gone about a mile along the lane, they came to a heath. It was a large open heath on the top of a hill, looking down a slope into a valley. The slope of the hill was covered with bushes, and there were trees in little groups here and there. The hills beyond were mostly covered with woods, and there was a stream in the valley down below. Uncle John led the way until they came to a flattish place on the hill-side. Then he said: “Now close to us here is a place where people lived long ago, before ever they could build towers or houses at all. Who can find where these old-time people lived?” And the boys all searched round among the bushes and the rocks; and after a while Joe called out: “Was it here?” Uncle John went to look, and he laughed at Joe. For what he had found was a little rough shed that the rabbit-catchers had put up. Then Dick called out. He had gone further down the hill, and had come upon an old limekiln with a little opening, like a doorway, at the bottom of it. But Uncle John said: “No, I don’t think that the limekiln is even half as old as my house. What we are looking for is something not built with stones and without walls of any sort.” Then David ran away, and he shouted out; and when they went to where he was, they found him standing in a sort of pit dug in the ground, about the depth that David could stand in up to his shoulders, and about twice as wide across as Uncle John’s walking-stick could measure. And Uncle John said: “Yes, that is one place; but, if you look about, you will find several more.” So the boys hunted about, and they found nine or ten more of the pits; and then they came back to where Uncle John was sitting and asked him to tell them about these old dwellings. But he said they must wait a little while, because he had something else for them to see first.