Alice and Beatrice

								

‘You must not go so near the edge,’ said Mary, who had followed them.
‘Miss Beatrice, give me your hand, and I will let you look down into the
sea.’
‘I can take care of myself,’ said Alice; ‘please let me, Mary. Oh, I
never saw such beautiful rocks! I wish that grandmamma were here, she
would like so much to see them. What is that large white piece further
on—it goes so far into the sea?’
‘That is Portland, a sort of island; it is a long way off; only to-day
the air is so clear that we can see it easily. But we must go back to
your grandmamma,’ added Mary. ‘Are you not hungry?’
‘Oh yes, so hungry, Mary! Let us go back to the nice farm-house.’ And
they ran quickly back again.
Alice and Beatrice found the table spread with a white table-cloth, and
some nice things on it ready for their dinner. The farmer’s wife had
lent some plates, and had put some milk and some cream on the table, and
some of her own brown bread; and the children drank the milk, and
grandmamma gave them some fruit tart, with a little of the nice cream.
‘It is very good of the farmer’s wife to give us such nice things,’ said
Alice; ‘everything tastes so much better than what we have at home, I
think. But I was very hungry and thirsty; perhaps that’s why I like
everything so much to-day.’
“I think that is one of the reasons, dear Alice,’ was the answer.
‘It is nice to have our dinner under this tree: do you not like it,
grandmamma!’
‘Yes, very much.’
‘And so do I, grandmamma,’ said little Beatrice.

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CHAPTER VIII.



        WALK ON THE HILLSIDE—TAME AND WILD RABBITS—RETURN HOME.

SOON after dinner grandmamma went with the children to the pretty green
field which sloped down to the white rocks.
‘What is that little white thing,’ asked Beatrice, ‘up there,
grandmamma? Look, please—it moves, it runs, it is alive!’
‘And there, too, and there!’ cried Alice; ‘how many little animals! What
can they be?’
Grandmamma looked too, and said, ‘They are rabbits, little white
rabbits.’
‘Rabbits!’ said Alice; ‘I thought that rabbits were brown.’
‘Yes, so they are, my dear, that is the wild rabbits are brown; but tame
rabbits are of different colours, some white, some black, or grey, or
spotted. I do not know how these tame rabbits came here.’
‘May we go nearer and look at them?’ both the children asked; and they
went much nearer, and they saw a great number of white rabbits running
about in a green field higher up the hill than the one they were walking
in. The children liked to look at these rabbits running about and
playing with each other.
‘Why are these white rabbits called tame?’ asked Alice.
‘Tame animals are those that are taken care of and fed. For, as these