OLIVE has asked me to write in her red book about my night in the cave.
I am sure I don’t know how to write it ; and she has made me promise not to read a word of what she has written, which I think is a great shame, and even mother says it is too bad! But it rains so fast today that we can’t go out, so I must do my best.
Well, I suppose Olive has told all about our picnic, and about Charlie hurting himself, and how she took him back to mother. It was very kind of her to go back, wasn’t it? Perhaps I ought to have gone with her. If I had, I should not have got into trouble,
When Olive and Charlie had gone, I did not care about my pool any more it was no fun doing it alone. I put in the little crab I had just caught, and then I sat down on one of the rocks and watched the waves.
When I was sitting there I remembered about the cave of which Mrs. M’Bride told us. I thought what fun it would be to go and look for it ! I wanted so much to see where the smugglers lived, and what sort of a place it was inside, and. I thought that I should have plenty of time to get there. It would take mother and Olive a long time to go back to Ravenscliffe, and wait till mother had written her letters, and then to go on to Langholme. I thought I should have a great deal a time to spare.
So I ran along the shore, and passed the rocky path which goes up to Langholme, and went on as quickly as I could to look for the cave. I thought that I saw it a great many times, but then, when I came up to the place, it was only quite a tiny cave, and I felt sure it could not be the right one.
But, at last, I went round a ridge of rocks, and got into little bay, and then, halfway up the cliffs, I saw the cave. It was a hard climb to get up to it, but I fell very glad that I had come.
Oh, it was a funny place ! There was a long dark passage leading into it, and I had no light, and did not much like going alone. I had to crawl on my hands and knees, the passage was so low, and I did not know who might be inside. When I got to the end of the passage I felt that I was in a big room, though I could not see anything for a long time. But when my eyes got used to the dark, I could see that just a little light was coming in through a hole at the top of the cave. Then I saw that it was a great, big place, quite as large as the nursery at Ravenscliffe, and the queerest place you can imagine.
I thought it must have been great fun to have been a smuggler, and to have lived there, only of course I would never have robbed the ships and murdered the poor sailors. Then I wondered at which end of the cave the smugglers used to sleep, and I walked all round it, and found some curious little shelves cut in the rock, where I expect they kept their cups and saucers.
I must have been a good long time in the cave. I don’t know how long, because I have not got a watch. Father says he will give me a watch on my next birthday, and then I shall always know how the time goes.
But I began to be hungry, so I thought it must be teatime. I crawled out of the cave, and then climbed down the cliff, but it was much harder work coming down than going up, and I nearly slipped several times. At last I got down on the sands, and then I saw that the tide was coming in. It was a good many yards off the cliffs yet, so I was not at all frightened.
But I forgot that the ridge of rocks at the end of the bay struck out so far into the sea; I never thought of that till I got up to it, and lien I found that I could not get past. I took off my shoes and stockings and tried to wade, but I found that I should soon be out of my depth, so I went back as well as I could.
I did not know what to do. The cliffs were So high and so steep, I could not possibly climb them. I tried in one place, but, after I had gone a long way, I saw the cliff going up as straight as house over my head, so I had to come down again.
Then I walked all along the bay, to see if it was better anywhere else. But I could not find a better place. Then I tried to get out of the bay on the other end, but I soon found that the water was quite as deep there.
I saw now that the sea was coming up very fast, and that it would soon be up to the cliffs all along the bay. There was nothing for me co do but to get into the smugglers’ cave, It was not half such fun being there now!
I sat at the opening of the cave for some time, and soon I saw that the sea had come back up to the cliffs, and then I knew that there was no chance of my getting out again till the sea went down.
And then I began to think of mother, and how anxious she would be. I knew she would be looking for me all over, and when she saw that the tide Was up to the rocks, she would think that I was drowned. Then I asked God to comfort mother, and not to let it make her ill.
Well, after a time it began to rain so fast, that I was obliged to creep inside the cave for shelter, and then I felt more miserable than aver. I could hear nothing but the waves dashing against the cliffs, and the wind whistling through the cave, and I was very cold and hungry.
Then I thought that I should not like to have been a smuggler at it was much nicer to live in a rum: e cave. I wondered whether the smuggles stopped up the hole at the top of the cave when they lived there ; it made the place , cold. Soon it began to get At and I could not see anything.
Oh, it seemed such a long night! I went to sleep once or twice, but not for long. I was too cold and hungry to sleep.
Once I woke up, and thought I heard some music, and I gave a great shout to see if any one was there. Mother says it was the bugle that I heard, and that she was sure that she heard my voice, but nobody else did, and they thought it was a seagull which cried out just after.
I heard the seagull too; her nest was just in the top of the cave. I didn’t know mother was there, just over my head!
Well, it seemed a long, time before morning came; and at last, when I saw it was beginning to get light, I crept out of the cave.
Oh, I was glad to see that the sea had gone down I climbed down the cliff, and then I had no sooner got to the bottom, than who should I see but mother. She was coming to meet with her arms held out for me to run into them. Dear mother, she had run all way that she might be the very first to find me!
And then—but I suppose Olive has told all the rest. Only Olive could not tell half how thankful I was, and Olive does not know how much I thought about when I was in the cave. I can’t write it down here, but I told. mother about it that night when she came to tuck me bed and to put my candle out. And mother gave me a kiss, and told me that it was worth all the trouble that she had gone through to know what I had just told her.