[Illustration: ONE OF PLASTER AND THATCH, OVERGROWN WITH ROSES.--_Page 239._] "And the blue, blue water at its feet!" rhymed Betty, all unconsciously. "I just know the Mediterranean isn't any bluer!" "Isn't it the dearest, oddest little place!" put in Mrs. Pitt, summing up all the children's remarks in one. "I do think it's----." But here Betty interrupted her. "Look at that little girl!" she fairly screamed. "Don't let her run down that steep street like that! She mustn't do it!" Mrs. Pitt, after one look at the child, merely laughed and replied, "Don't worry, Betty; she's used to it. She's probably done it all her life, and she'll never fall. Now, I turn you all loose for two hours. Explore the place to your heart's content, for it will be long before you see such another. Come to the New Inn (that's it, where the sign is!) at one-thirty for luncheon." Enthusiastically the four started off. At first they all picked their way carefully and slowly down over the smooth, slippery stones, but gradually they became more expert in keeping their balance, and could go faster. The two boys made straight for the foot of the town to see the harbor and fishing-boats; Barbara and Betty were bent on investigating all the nooks, corners, and tiny shops of the little place; and Mrs. Pitt contentedly settled herself on the miniature piazza of the New Inn, and looked with never-failing interest and delight at the scene before her. To explain more in detail, Clovelly is built in what was once a torrent-bed, and the village tumbles down from the top of the cliff to the very edge of Hartland Bay. The droll, Italian-like cottages cling to the hillside, or seem to grow directly out of the gray rock. At first, the street descends rather gradually and straight, but after a short distance, it zigzags first to left and then to right, twists and turns, takes one under parts of houses, into private yards, out to look-off points, and then pitches very, very abruptly down to the Red Lion Inn, which guards the little harbor with its long, curving sea-wall and tiny lighthouse.