They had left the cove and were making their way to the hamlet by the foot of the rocks, where at low tide there was a narrow strip of pebbly sand, only here and there broken by out-jutting crags which the children found it very amusing to clamber over. Their voices sounded clear and high in the air. For the wind seemed to have fallen with the receding tide. By the time they reached the cottages they were both in a glow, and Ruby had quite forgotten her indignation at old Bertha's fireless rooms. CHAPTER TWO. WINFRIED. "And somewhat southward toward the noon, Whence lies a way up to the moon; And thence the fairy can as soon Pass to the earth below it." Drayton. Joan, a pleasant-faced young woman who had once been the children's nurse, and was now married to a fisherman who owned several boats, and was a person of some consequence among the villagers, was standing at the door of her cottage with a baby in her arms as the children came up. Her face beamed with smiles, but before she had time to speak Ruby called out to her. "How are you, Joan? We've come round to ask how baby is, but it's very easy to see he is better, otherwise you wouldn't be so smiling." "And here he is to speak for himself, Miss Ruby," said Joan. "How very kind of you to think of him! And you too, Miss Mavis, my dear. Are you both quite well?" "Yes, thank you, Joan," said Mavis quietly. But Ruby was fussing about the baby, admiring him and petting him in a way that could scarcely fail to gain his mother's heart. Joan, however, though fond of both the children, had plenty of discernment. She smiled at Ruby--"Miss Ruby has pretty ways with her, there's no denying," she told her husband afterwards,--but there was a very gentle tone in her voice as she turned to Mavis. "You've had no more headaches, I hope, Miss Mavis? Have you been working hard at your lessons?" "I have to work hard if I work at all, Joan," said the little girl rather sadly. "She's so stupid," said Ruby; "and she gets her head full of fancies. I daresay that prevents her having room for sensible things. Oh, by-the-bye, Joan, tell us who lives in that queer cottage all by itself some way farther along the coast. I never saw it till the other day-- it's almost hidden among the rocks. But Mavis says she once passed it with you, and you made her run by quickly. Why did you, Joan? I do so want to know." Joan looked rather at a loss.