Alice and Beatrice

								

and umbrellas.
‘Take all the things up to the farm-house, please, Bartlett,’ said
grandmamma, ‘and tell Mrs. Wilmot that we shall soon come up.’
The children, in the meantime, were looking at something which amused
them very much.
There were a number of horses—about twenty (for Alice counted
them)—which all walked, one after each other, with no one to guide them,
up to the big black boat that had brought the sacks of coal, and had
just reached the shore. The horses, one after another, went into the
water to the side of the boat; and when the men had laid a sack of coals
across each horse’s back, the horses went away out of the water in a
row, and up the shore, and carried the sacks in front of a large house,
where some men took off the sacks, emptied each sack, and threw them
over the backs of the horses, which then turned round and went back
again to the boat. Thus there were always two rows of horses, one row
going to the sea, and the other returning loaded with sacks of coals.
The little girls were very much pleased to see how clever the horses
were—how regularly they went, never stopping behind, but on and on till
they reached the right place. They liked to see each horse come up to
the edge of the sea, put down its head for an instant, as if to see how
deep the water was, and step in until it reached the boat, then wait
till its turn came, and take the place of the last horse that was
loaded. The horses did not seem to mind the waves that washed up against
them, for the tide was high, and there were more waves than when the
children landed.
After Alice and Beatrice had looked a long time, they turned away from
the sea, and went up the path that led through a green field up the side
of the valley, and followed their grandmamma till they came to an old
farm-house.
They were very hot and tired, for the path was long and very steep, and
the sun shone bright, and they found the weather much warmer on the land
than on the sea.
There was a large tree in front of the house, and it was so shady and
cool there, that grandmamma asked the farmer’s wife if she would let
them have a table and some chairs under the tree, as they would like to
sit in the shade, and eat their dinner out of doors.
Mrs. Wilmot, the farmer’s wife, then ordered a table and some chairs,
and Alice and Beatrice sat down and rested a little, for they were
tired; but very soon they began to run up and down the sloping side of
the hill, and laughed when some sheep that were feeding there began to
run about too; and they chased the sheep about, till at last the sheep
leaped over the hedge at the end of the field, and began to jump from
one rock to another.
Alice and Beatrice followed the sheep; but, on going through the gate,
they saw that they were near the sea, which lay below the steep cliff;
and large pieces of white rock, that sparkled in the sun, lay half-way
down, as if they had fallen down.