Oh! how fast the train seemed to go now that there was something to look at.  Everywhere mountains were beginning to spring up.  And when they had said good-bye to the sea, the mountains began to grow taller and taller.  What had happened to the houses too?  They had all turned white or gray; there was no red one left.  And the fields had stone walls instead of hedges; and inside the walls there were small sheep, about as big as the lambs they had seen near Oxford in the morning.

Oxenholme, Kendal, Windermere.  How glad the tired children were when the train ran slowly down into Windermere station, and they could jump out and say good-bye to it for a long, long time!  They had to wait a little, till father had found all the boxes and put them in the carriage that was waiting for them, and then in they tumbled, nurse having first wrapped them up in big shawls, for it was evening now, and the wind had grown cold.  That was a nice drive home among the mountains.  How tall and dark and quiet they were.  And what was this shining on their left hand, like a white face running beside them, and peeping from behind the trees?  Why, it was a lake; a great wide lake, with tiny boats upon it, some with white sails and some without.

“Mother! mother! may we go in those boats some day?” shouted Olly, in a little sharp tired voice, and his mother smiled at him, and said—­“Yes, very likely.”

How happy mother looked.  She knew all the mountains like old friends, she could tell all their names; and every now and then, when they came to a house, she and father would begin to talk about the people who lived in it, just as if they were talking about people they knew quite well.  And now came a little town, the town of Wanwick mother called it, right among the mountains, with a river running round it, and a tall church spire.  It began to get darker and darker, and the trees hung down over the road, so that the children could hardly see.  On they went, and Olly was very nearly asleep again, when the carriage began to crunch over gravel, and then it stopped, and father called out—­“Here we are, children, here we are at Ravensnest.”

And out they all jumped.  What were those bright lights shining?  Olly and Milly hardly knew where they were going as nurse took them in, and one of Uncle Richard’s servants showed them the way upstairs to the nursery.  Such a nice nursery, with candles lit, and a little fire burning, two bowls of hot bread and milk on the table, and in the corner two little white beds, as soft and fresh as nests!  In twenty minutes Olly was in one of these little white beds, and Milly in the other.  And you may guess whether they were long about going to sleep.

CHAPTER III

RAVENSNEST

“Poor little souls!  How late they are sleeping.  They must have been tired last night.”

So said nurse at eight o’clock, when she came back into the nursery from a journey to the kitchen after the breakfast things, and found the children still fast asleep; so fast that it looked as if they meant to go on sleeping till dinner-time.