'No, it's the sun's redness shining on the glass. The top room is all windows--I've been there once,' she said. 'It's a good way to walk though it looks so near, and there's some water too between. Father took us once in a boat, mother and me, when the tide was in, and we had dinner there; we took it with us, and there was a nice old man father knew. And when the tide went out we came over a bit of water till we got to the stones, in the boat, and then the boatman took it back, and we walked home right along the stones--you see where I mean?' She pointed to the rocky ridge which I told you ran out from the shore to the lighthouse. Bridget listened with the greatest interest. 'How nice,' she said. 'Couldn't you have walked the whole way? I'm sure there isn't any water between now--_I_ can't see it. It must have gone away.' 'Oh no, it hasn't,' said Celestina. 'It's always there: it couldn't go away. You couldn't ever get to the lighthouse without a boat; once one of the men had to come in a hurry, and father said he had to wade to over his waist.' But Bridget was not convinced. She stood there gazing out seawards at the lighthouse. 'I would like to go there,' she said. 'Can't you see a long way from the top room that's all windows, Celestina? I should think you could see to the--what do they call that thing at the top of the world--the north stick, is it?' [Illustration: 'I would like to go out there,' she said. P. 115.] Celestina was not very much given to laughing, but this was too funny. 'The North Pole, you mean,' she said. 'Oh no, you couldn't see to _there_, I'm quite sure. Besides, there isn't anything to see like that--not a pole sticking up in the ground--it's just the name of a place. Father's told me all about it. And so did the old man at the lighthouse. Oh, I would like to go there--better than anywhere--just think how strange it must be, all the snow and the ice mountains and everything quite, _quite_ still!' CHAPTER VIII A NICE PLAN 'Up where the world grows cold, Under the sharp north star.' _A North Pole Story._ Biddy stared at Celestina. The little girl's face was quite flushed with excitement. 'Go on,' said Biddy. 'Tell me some more. I never heard about it.' 'It's what they call the arctic regions,' said Celestina. 'The old sailor at the lighthouse has been there. Once he was there in a ship that got fastened into the ice, and they thought they'd never get out again, and they'd scarcely nothing to eat. Oh, it was dreadful; but I did so like to hear about it. And fancy, in the summer it never gets night up there--the sun never goes away; and in the winter it never gets day, the sun doesn't come up at all.' 'How very funny!' said Biddy. 'What makes it like that? Is it the same sun as ours?'