But as they were passing by the old yew, little Marwy baaed, and tugged away towards her mother's grave; where the clover grew. Then the Colonel stooped, swallowing his throat. And he picked her up in his arms, and marched on without a word. And they went down a rutty lane that seemed to have no turning, until by good luck they came to a Fort in a Hole at the bottom. And when the Colonel saw that, he said, "What about in here?" for he knew it didn't matter where they went, so long as they went somewhere. For the Commander-in-Chief was like a lot more, he had only one idea, which was to give trouble. So the Colonel walked across the drawbridge with little Marwy in his arms, and banged with his sword-hilt. And when nobody came, he peeped in. And it was all empty inside, only for a lot of weeds, and an old speckled seagull with a dagger-beak, limping up and down the barrack-square. And when the Colonel saw the gull, his eyes shone, and he said, "This'll do. Come on," and he put down little Marwy, and trotted in; and the Fellows followed with Goliath and the great cannon rumbling over the draw-bridge behind. Then the Fellows set the cannon up with its nose over the wall; for it was a low wall; and the Fort was in a Hole. So when they fired the cannon off to see if it was all all right, the ball only hit the mud-bank that ran round, and bounded back and took the yellow one's wind rather; which cheered Tiny up a bit. But, as the big brown captain said, when he saw the cannon wouldn't shoot over the bank, it didn't really matter much: for it was the noise that kept Them down, supposing They were there. And while the Fellows rubbed the yellow one, the Colonel ran and made friends with the gull. But Tiny went apart, and wrote a writing on his cuff, and sent it by Cooey to Baby. And the writing ran, _Found a Fort in a Hole come quicks-you-can by Puck and get a house near by to put things in.--TINY._ 33 And when Baby got the writing, she led out Puck from the shed, and put him in the little cart, while Phyllis held the shafts, and mannikin screamed a lot of orders through the crack of the boot-hole: for mannikin was like Tiny, and wanted everybody to think he was horsey. But Baby and Phyllis paid no heed, and just did up the band instead, while Puck tried to bite them, which was a very favourite thing of Puck's. Then they put the things under the seat, and Baby got in, with mannikin and the Junior Subaltern on the back-seat: for the Colonel had left the Junior Subaltern behind to sweep up; which was always his little job. Then Baby took the reins, and tugged, and Puck went off at a run-away patter; while Phyllis walked, and the Others trailed behind on high heels. And it was Winter by now. And Baby always said she liked Winter best, for the same reason as Autumn.