going? You know all the best walks. We elect you leader this afternoon."

"It's beautiful along the cliffs towards St Morval's Head. There's a path
most of the way, and we can scramble where there isn't. I wouldn't have
dared to take the children, but I vote we venture it."

"Anywhere you like so long as we don't waste any more time; I'm just
crazy to start!" agreed Fay.

So they went by a narrow alley and up steep flights of steps to the hill
above the town, and took the track that led along the edge of the cliffs
towards St. Morval's Head. It was a glorious autumn afternoon, and,
though the bracken was brown and withered, there were specimens of wild
flowers to be picked and written down in the note-books. Summer seemed to
have lingered, and had left poppies, honeysuckle, foxgloves, and other
blossoms that were certainly out of season. Tattie, who was keen on
entomology, recorded a red admiral, a clouded yellow butterfly, and a
gamma moth, though she did not consider them worth chasing and catching
for her collection.

Flocks of goldfinches and long-tailed tits were flitting about, and they
spied some black-caps and pipits, and even a buzzard falcon poised in the
air high above the cliffs. Here quite a little excitement occurred, for
several sea-gulls attacked the buzzard and with loud cries tried to drive
it away, following it as it soared higher and higher into the heavens,
and finally routing it altogether and sending it off in the direction of
Port Sennen.

The path along which the girls had been walking was the merest track
through the bracken. So far there had been either a low wall or a hedge