The Gap in the Fence | Page 6

it's not so very far away."
"Oh, yes," said Dan. "It's such a long time since we've been there. Do you think, if it's not filled up, we might go in just for a minute?"
Norah shook here head.
"No, I don't think we can," she said. "You know father said we had been trespassing when we went there before, and nobody lived there then, so I suppose it would be more trespassing still if we went now; that's why we've never been to look at it all this time, because I knew if we did we should want to go in."
Dan sighed.
"And however much we want, this afternoon, we mustn't go in," he said. "I almost wish the people hadn't come to the Grange, Norah; it used to be so nice when we used to go and sit on our own little bank there, and nobody else ever came."
"But we couldn't go now, even if it was empty," said Norah, "because father said---- Oh, Dan!" she exclaimed, breaking off suddenly, "the gap is still there! Do you think I might peep through?"
"Yes," said Dan. "That's not trespassing. People often stop and look in at our gate, and we don't mind a bit. Do go and look in, Norah; you can leave me here in the chair, and if it looks very nice you must come and help me down the bank just to peep through once more."
Norah crept through the bushes cautiously, and popped her head in at the gap. Then she gave a little gasp of surprise.
There on Norah's own particular seat--a mossy stone shaped very like a stumpy armchair--sat the foreign little girl reading a book.
She raised her head and looked at Norah gravely.
[Illustration: She raised her head and looked at Norah gravely.]
They were a strange contrast--the pale, delicate-looking, little dark-eyed foreigner, and fair-haired, blue-eyed, rosy-cheeked Norah. For a few moments they looked at each other in silence, then the foreign child spoke.
"You are the little girl I saw on the other side of the gate," she said, speaking slowly and distinctly, as if she wanted to be quite sure of saying the English words in the right way. "And all the other boys and girls--are they also with you?"
"No," said Norah, "only Dan."
For the first time in her short life she felt shy and awkward. The little girl spoke so precisely and had such dignified manners, "almost like a grown-up princess," as Norah said afterwards when telling her mother all about it; but if she had only known, the little girl was really a great deal shyer than she was, and had never before spoken to another little girl.
"And Dan--is he there?" she asked. "I don't think I do very much like boys."
"Oh, you would like Dan," said Norah quickly. "Everyone likes Dan. He will be surprised when I tell him that you were sitting in our own glen. We always call it 'our glen,' because nobody else knows about it, and it looks quite the kind of place for fairies to come and play in, doesn't it?"
"I don't think I know what you mean," said the little girl in a puzzled kind of way. "What are fairies?"
CHAPTER IV.
FAIRIES.
"Don't know what fairies are? Oh, how funny!" said Norah. "You must get Dan to tell you about them; he knows ever so much more about them than I do. That is my seat you're sitting on now, and that is Dan's seat over there," pointing to a mossy corner, and quite forgetting that the glen belonged to the little foreign girl now, and that she and Dan had no longer any right to it.
The little foreign girl rose to her feet quickly.
"Won't you come and sit here now?" she said. "Please do! And won't Dan come and sit on his seat too?" glancing towards the corner Norah had pointed out.
Norah felt that she had been rather rude, and hastened to make amends.
"No, I don't think we can come to-day," she said, "though thank you very much for asking us; and it was very rude of me to have said the seats belonged to us," added the little girl, getting rather red. "Of course, the glen is yours now, and the seats too."
"Oh, but do come and sit in it sometimes," said the other child eagerly. "I am always, always alone all day, except for old Marie; and it would be so nice to have someone, not quite big, to talk to."
"We will come to-morrow," said Norah,--she felt very sorry for the little girl when she spoke so sadly of being alone all day--"but I must go now. I can hear Dan calling, and it is getting late."
"Good-bye," said the little girl. "Won't you tell me your name, please?"
"Norah--Norah Carew."
"And mine is Una. Good-bye, Norah. Please do come to-morrow."
"Yes, I promise