A deep, deep green and rocky valley, very narrow, and filled with
wood; but through the wood, hundreds of feet below him, he could
see a clear stream glance. Oh, if he could but get down to that
stream! Then, by the stream, he saw the roof of a little cottage,
and a little garden set out in squares and beds. And there was a
tiny little red thing moving in the garden, no bigger than a fly.
As Tom looked down, he saw that it was a woman in a red petticoat.
Ah! perhaps she would give him something to eat. And there were
the church-bells ringing again. Surely there must be a village
down there. Well, nobody would know him, or what had happened at
the Place. The news could not have got there yet, even if Sir John
had set all the policemen in the county after him; and he could get
down there in five minutes.

Tom was quite right about the hue-and-cry not having got thither;
for he had come without knowing it, the best part of ten miles from
Harthover; but he was wrong about getting down in five minutes, for
the cottage was more than a mile off, and a good thousand feet
below.

However, down he went; like a brave little man as he was, though he
was very footsore, and tired, and hungry, and thirsty; while the
church-bells rang so loud, he began to think that they must be
inside his own head, and the river chimed and tinkled far below;
and this was the song which it sang:-


Clear and cool, clear and cool,
By laughing shallow, and dreaming pool;