little scarlet balls on the banks in the Ravensnest woods.  Both she and Olly went to bed after their first day at Ravensnest with their little hearts full of happiness, and their little heads full of plans.  To-morrow they were to go to Aunt Emma’s, and perhaps the day after that father would take them to bathe in the river, and nurse would let them go and help Becky and Tiza call the cows.  Holidays were nice; still geography lessons were nice too sometimes, thought Milly sleepily, just as she was slipping, slipping away into dreamland, and in her dreams her faithful little thoughts went back lovingly to Fraeulein’s kind old face, and to the capes and islands and seas she had been learning about a week ago.

[Illustration:  “The flowers Milly gathered for her mother”]

The next morning Mr. and Mrs. Norton were busy indoors till about twelve o’clock; and the children wandered about the garden with nurse, finding out many new nooks and corners, especially a delightful steep path which led up and up into the woods, till at last it took the children to a little brown summer-house at the top, where they could sit and look over the trees below, away to the river and the hay-fields and the mountains.  And between the stones and this path grew the prettiest wild strawberries, only, as Milly said, it was not much good looking for them yet, for there were so few red ones you could scarcely get enough to taste what they were like.  But in a week or two, she and Olly planned that they would take up a basket with some green leaves in it, and gather a lot for father and mother—­enough for regular dessert—­and some wild raspberries too, for these also grew in the wood, to the great delight of the children, who had never seen any before.  They began to feel presently as if it would be nothing very extraordinary to find trees covered with barley sugar or jam tarts in this wonderful wood.  And as for the flowers Milly gathered for her mother, they were a sight to see—­moon-daisies and meadow-sweet, wild roses and ragged-robins, and bright bits of rhododendrons.  For both the woods and the garden at Ravensnest were full of rhododendrons of all colours, pink and red, and white and flame colour; and Milly and Olly amused themselves with making up bunches of different coloured flowers with as many different colours in them as they could find.  There were no rhododendrons at Willingham; and the children thought them the loveliest, gayest things they had ever seen.

But at last twelve o’clock came.  Nurse tidied the children, gave them some biscuits and milk, and then sent them to the drawing-room to find father and mother.  Only Mrs. Norton was there, but she said there was no need to wait for father, as he was out already and would meet them on the way.  They were to go straight over the mountain instead of walking round by the road, which would have taken much longer.  So off they set—­Olly skipping, and chattering as he always did; while Milly stuck close to her mother, telling her every now and then, when Olly left off talking, about their morning in the wood, the flowers they had gathered and the strawberries they had found.  At the top of the garden was a little gate, and beside the gate stood Bessie and Charlie, who had really been watching for the children all the morning, though they didn’t dare to come into the garden without leave.