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two.
    The horse, as was natural, stopped beside Mr. Caddy, and Mary stopped too. It was fortunate that she did so at that moment, forthe Mockery children scampered by, led by Esther, a love-child planted by the war and now given house-room by her aunt, Mrs. Pottle.
    â€˜â€™Tis said,’ said Mr. Caddy to Mary when the noise was gone by, ‘that they be children; an’ that all thik noise be a-called up by bedtime doings.’
    â€˜Oh,’ said Mary, ‘oh, Mr. Caddy, you do talk about things that you shouldn’t.’
    Mr. Caddy nodded; he was pleased with such praise. He now watched with a knowing and interested look Mary’s horse feeding upon the rich spring clover that grew beside the way.
    â€˜You bain’t never been down to the sea, ’ave ’ee?’ asked Mr. Caddy, who wished to retain Mary a little longer because he liked her.
    â€˜No,’ replied Mary, ‘an’ I shouldn’t like to, for I don’t fancy they nasty waves that do rise up and fall upon any one.’
    â€˜True, they bain’t proper, they waves bain’t, for a poor maiden to see,’ said Mr. Caddy, who entirely agreed with Mary’s attitude towards rude nature; ‘an’ they bain’t covered by no other blanket than darkness at night-time, them waves that do so swell and break.’
    Mary looked inquiringly at Mr. Caddy, for he was always the one to give information about the sea to any one.
    â€˜Do thik sea,’ asked Mary, ‘that do bide there beyond fisherman’s hut, where chimney do smoke of itself, go on a-swelling for ever,or do ’e but cover the bottom sky, same as clouds do sometimes hide what be up above?’
    â€˜No, no, bain’t always there,’ replied Mr. Caddy with conviction; ‘seas do run off sometimes when they be minded; they do run down roads far off, shouting out, “The Nellie-bird be a-coming,” same as children do shout—’tis a strong, happy boy, thik sea be, that do rise and watch for a maiden.’
    Mr. Caddy chanced at this moment to look up at the green mound upon the cliff; he saw a figure standing there who wasn’t the ancient king.
    Mary laughed; she began to lead the horse along the lane that led to the cliff. As she went along she heard Mr. Caddy talking, for want of any better company, to his ducks; he was advising them in many wise terms never to go down to the sea. The ducks had come out of the ditch and were looking up at Mr. Caddy, quacking with excitement as if they quite understood what he was saying and were wide awake to it.
    Mr. Caddy having been seen, had in a kind of way clothed the earth for Mary, and now there was Simon Cheney upon the hill, who would be sure to help to hide the nakedness that nature so improperly exposed. But she had to get to Simon, and Mary looked timidly up at the sky as she walked along the lane leading the horse.
    The evening light shone, wonderful in its clearness; there was no cloud. The clear colours burned and cut with the sharp sword of beauty.
    Mary couldn’t help looking up, because the sky was a great deal too much like the sea in her idea, and she feared that she might behold something in it that she didn’t wish to see.
    Mary sighed; she looked from the sky to the clear dark line of the Mockery cliff. She shuddered, all was so naked. The cliff, she felt, should be wearing a coat, while the bare sky should at least have the decency to clothe itself in a chemise with pink ribbons.
    The elm trees by the lane Mary looked at too a little doubtfully; she hoped they would soon have their summer garments again. She always felt a little nervous going under those bare boughs in the winter time, and now that the spring was come she was glad to see the beginnings of proper clothing.
    Every wanderer’s walk, whether for business or for pleasure, is an adventure in Mockery; for who can tell what is going to happen or who one will see when the home