At this Bess was comforted, for the prospect of the sea, the sands, and a spade of her very own, were very consolatory. But the day that little Hals left us, she came to me just before going off to bed. "Mum," she said, "I've been thinking." "Yes, dear," I replied. "I've been thinking," pursued Bess, "that somehow there ought to be--a way to keep a boy. Grown-up girls have husbands, I know," she said. Then, after a momentary pause, "You have a great, great book of Harrod's. Surely, somewhere, mamsie, they have a boy stall." I laughed and kissed my little girl. "We are poor creatures," I said, "we girls and women. We have all for centuries wanted to buy some boy, and haven't yet found out where or how to do it." [Sidenote: "GOOD-BYE! GOOD-BYE!"] A few days later, Bess and I found ourselves on the Wenlock station platform. Masses of boxes surrounded us, and Mouse, with a label tied to her collar, sat watching us intently. "Why aren't you glad to go--glad as I am, mamsie?" cried Bess, impetuously. "You know the doctor said that it would make you quite better, and we can bathe together in the sea. Besides," added my little maid, with wisdom beyond her years, "if you only go, you are always much gladder to come back." We jumped into a carriage, and Mouse looked out of the window. Burbidge took my last injunctions. Then the train moved off, and the ruins and old town of Wenlock faded before my eyes. "Good-bye, dear old place!" I murmured. And as we dashed on, faintly sounding on the breeze, I caught the last notes of the distant chimes--"Good-bye! Good-bye!" INDEX A Abbey Farmery, 233, 279 Ales-hoof, 262 All Fools' Day, 132 Almonds, 131 Amiel, 2 Anemones, 16, 228 varieties, 289 Annuals, 283 Anstice, Squire, 168 Apple Howlers, 242 Arabis, 98 Ashfield Hall, 53 Austrian briar, 137 Ayrshire briars, 283 B Bachelors' Buttons, 173 Bacon, Lord, 300 Bacon's garden, 293 Baily Clerke, Sir John, _alias_ John Cressage, 153 Banister or Banaistre, 83 Banister's Coppice, 83 Beans, Mont d'Or, 50 Bee charms, 140, 141 Bee hives, 139 Bees, 137, 138 Berners, Dame Juliana, 100 Birds' country names, 179 Blackbird, 94 Blackcap, 16, 220 Black ouzel (blackbird), 184 Blore Heath, 155 Bog myrtle, 176 Borde, Andrew, 300 Boscobel, 227 Botelar, Sir Thomas, 151, 152, 153 Botryoides hyacinths, 136 Bouncing Bess (Valerian), 173 Bridle, the scold's, 247 Browne, Sir Thomas, 156 Buckingham, Duke of, 83 Bull-baiting, 166 Bull-ring, 163, 250 C Caer Caradoc, 273 Camden, 211 Canaries, 36 Cap St. Martin, 11 Carrion crow, 104, 105 Chaffinch, 8, 65, 185 Chapter House, 209 Charité, La, 95 Charles I., 53 Charles II., 227 Chartres, 42 Chaucer, 171