Several months passed, during which time Sarah was very happy in her beautiful home; she wrote to Dick every fortnight, and told him how she was getting on, and he answered her letters regularly. One day he wrote saying that he had a great piece of news to tell her, which was, that his master had given him a place as upper servant, and had also raised his wages. His letter was written in great spirits, and Sarah only felt sorry she was not on the spot to tell him at once how delighted she felt. His letter went on to say that his master was thinking of paying some shooting visits in the north of Ireland, and Dick hoped they might meet, as he was to be valet for the occasion. Sarah was greatly excited at this prospect, and could only relieve her feelings by taking a good walk along the headlands. Sarah was one of those people who cannot do without sympathy, and she knew that great joy likes to be shared to make it complete, therefore she felt very sad at not being able to talk over every detail of this great excitement with Dick, as a letter seemed to her quite inadequate for the occasion. Mrs. and Miss Sinclair were going to pay a few visits in the country, and had told the housekeeper to give the servants a day's outing in Belfast. After their departure the house was very quiet, and there was naturally not much work to do, but Sarah felt that with such a beautiful garden and such perfect scenery, she could never be dull. One morning she went down to bathe, a thing she had never done before; at first she would only let the water ripple over her feet, then come up to her knees, which she thought very brave of her, but Peggy, the housemaid, who was also there, laughed so heartily, that she ventured quite in, and enjoyed herself so much that she determined to repeat the operation whenever she had time. At last the housekeeper announced in a very grand manner that in two days the servants might go to Belfast for their trip. They were all very much pleased, and the maids busied themselves in mending their dresses and putting new ribbons on their hats. They were determined to enjoy themselves, and knew that a smart appearance would greatly help this object. The day soon came, and at an early hour everybody was assembled in the hall waiting for the cars which Mrs. Sinclair had kindly ordered for them. This time Sarah had no difficulty in seating herself, and enjoyed the drive in the fresh morning air and lovely sunshine very much. Arrived at the station, they only just had time to take their tickets and jump into their places, when the train was off, they laughed a great deal, and were all very light-hearted when Belfast was reached. At first they were not sure what they would do, but Sarah unconsciously solved the difficulty by exclaiming, "Oh, I _am_ hungry!" so they all trooped off for breakfast at an inexpensive hotel.