'Do very long walks generally have that desirable effect?' asked Miss Clotilda. 'I have no objection, provided you don't lose your way.'
'Oh! we won't lose our way,' said Neville. 'I have a pocket compass. Besides, as you said yourself, aunty, it is a very easy country to find one's way in. There's always a hill one can climb, and once you see the sea, you can easily make out where you are.'
'And any of the cottagers about can direct you to Ty-gwyn,' said Miss Clotilda. 'Well, then, if you ask Martha to make you some sandwiches, and to give you some rock cakes for "pudding," you might take your dinners with you, and not come back till the afternoon. And,' she added, glancing out of the window as she spoke, 'I think you would do well to make hay while the sun shines, at present—that is to say, to go a long walk while it is fine, for I don't think this weather is going to last above a day or two.'
'Oh!' Kathie exclaimed, 'I do hope it won't rain all the time Philippa is here.'
'Kathie,' said Neville, 'you are too silly. Aunty only meant that we might have some rain. She never said it would rain for weeks.'
'That it seldom, indeed never, does here,' said Miss Clotilda. 'But, you know, in a very hilly district you must expect uncertain weather. I think there is no fear for to-day, however.'
And an hour or two later the children set off.
'Which way shall we go?' said Kathleen. 'To the sea?'
Neville looked round.
'Suppose we go over there, towards that hill,' he said. 'There's a sort of creek between two little hills there—or more perhaps as if it was cut in the middle of one—that must be very pretty. Martha told me about it. I forget the name she called it in Welsh. She said the smugglers used to run their boats in there, for there are caves they could hide things in.'