‘I am so sorry,’ said the little Brown Man, climbing the rock to be on a level with her face; ‘but I would not let such a small matter as that prevent me from looking for that purse with its gold ring markings. Your Great-Grannie will never be vexed with you any more when you have found it, and receive another one full of the Small People’s gold in exchange.’
‘How did you come to lose your purse?’ asked the child, anxious to hear what he would say.
‘Unfortunately, I took it with me a night or two ago to the cliff above our dwelling-place, where we have our games, and by a terrible misfortune I dropped it over the cliff. I and my relations have been looking for it ever since. I have come here to-day to renew the offer I made yesterday. You would like to be rich, wouldn’t you?’
‘We are terrible poor!’ said the child evasively—‘the poorest people in St. Minver parish, Great-Grannie said.’
‘Are you really, you poor things?’ said the little Brown Man kindly. ‘Then, in that case I will double my reward if you find the purse. I will give you two purses full of the Small People’s golden money instead of only one. It must, however, be brought to Piskey Goog before the next new moon, and as the present one is in her last quarter, there is not much time to lose, is there?’
‘No,’ said the child, still going on with her limpet-picking.
‘Won’t you go and look for it now?’ asked the little Brown Man, with a hint of impatience in his voice. ‘The tide will be on the flow again soon, and your chance for to-day will be gone.’
‘I must fill my basket with limpets first,’ said Gerna; ‘Grannie raises ducks to sell to the gentry, and we can’t afford for them to lose a meal, she says.’
‘You are like a limpet yourself; there is no moving you against your will,’ cried the little man, scowling, ‘and——’
What else he would have said there was no knowing, for Farmer Vivian appeared on the sands at that moment, and shouted across the gray-gold bar, and this caused the little Piskey Man to take to his heels and run into his cavern.