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2-1

2-2
2-26
Three common ways that fraudulent financial reporting can be perpetrated include:
Manipulation, falsification or alteration of accounting records or supporting documents
Misrepresentation or omission of events, transactions, or other significant information
Intentional misapplication of accounting principles
Common types of fraudulent financial reporting include:
Improper revenue recognition
Improper deferral of costs and expenses
Improper asset valuation
Concealed liabilities
Misrepresentations or omissions in financial statement footnotes of MD&A
2-27
The reporter’s statement makes sense. Asset misappropriations are much easier to accomplish in
small organizations that don’t have sophisticated systems of internal control. Fraudulent financial
reporting is more likely to occur in large organizations because management often has ownership
of or rights to vast amounts of the company’s stock. As the stock price goes up, management’s
worth also increases. However, the reporter may have the mistaken sense that financial fraud
only occurs rarely in smaller businesses. That is not the case. Many smaller organizations are
also motivated to misstate their financial statements in order to (a) prop up the value of the
organization for potential sale, (b) obtain continuing financing from a bank or other financial
institution, or (c) to present a picture of an organization that is healthy when it may be
susceptible to not remaining a going concern. Finally, smaller organizations may conduct a fraud
of a different sort, i.e., misstating earnings by understating revenue or masking owner
distributions as expenses. This is often done to minimize taxes. It would also be a mistake to
think that asset misappropriations do not happen in larger organizations. Whenever controls are
weak, there is an opportunity for asset misappropriation. When the opportunity is coupled with
motivation and a belief that the fraud could be covered up, some of those opportunities will
result in asset misappropriation.
2-28
a. A Ponzi scheme occurs when the deposits of current investors are used to pay returns on
the deposits of previous investors; no real investment is happening.
b. The key elements of the Bernie Madoff fraud include:
Fabricated “gains” of almost $65 billion
Defrauded thousands of investors
Took advantage of his high profile investment leader status to establish trust in his
victims

2-3
Accomplished the scheme by keeping all the fraudulent transactions off the real financial
statements of the company
Employed a CPA who conducted a sham audit
Led to the PCAOB now having oversight of the audits of SEC-registered brokers and
dealers
c. The Bernie Madoff fraud is primarily a case of asset misappropriation. However, it is
important to note that asset misappropriation then led Madoff to commit fraudulent financial
reporting to hide the asset misappropriation.
2-29
a. Management perpetrated the fraud by filling inside containers with water in the larger
containers filled with oil. Further, they transferred the oil from tank to tank in the order in which
they knew the auditors would proceed through the location.
b. The goal was to overstate inventory assets, thereby understanding cost of goods sold and
overstating income.
c. The Great Salad Oil Swindle is primarily a case of fraudulent financial reporting.
2-30
Incentives relate to the rationale for the fraud, e.g., need for money, desire to enhance stock
price. Opportunities relate to the ability of the fraudster to actually accomplish the fraud, e.g.,
through weak internal controls. Rationalization is the psychological process of justifying the
fraud.
2-31
Common incentives for fraudulent financial reporting include:
Management compensation schemes
Other financial pressures for either improved earnings or an improved balance sheet
Debt covenants
Pending retirement or stock option expirations
Personal wealth tied to either financial results or survival of the company
Greed—for example, the backdating of stock options was performed by individuals who
already had millions of dollars of wealth through stock
2-32
Factors, or red flags, that would be strong indicators of opportunity to commit fraud include:
inadequate segregation of duties
opportunities for management override
absence of monitoring controls
complex organizational structure

2-4
unauthorized access to physical assets
inadequate reconciliations of key accounts, especially bank accounts
access to cash that it not supervised or reconciled by someone else
2-33
The ability to rationalize is important. Unless fraudsters are outright criminals, they will often be
able to come up with an excuse for their behavior. “Accounting rules don’t specifically disallow
it” or “the company owes me” are potential rationales. Other common rationalizations include:
Unfair financial treatment (perceived) in relationship to other company employees
“It is only temporary”, or “it’s a loan from the company”
“I deserve it”
“The company is so big they won’t miss it”
“ The company is unethical”
“The company comes by its profits in a way that exploits people”.
2-34
a. incentive
b. incentive
c. opportunity
d. incentive
e. rationalization
f. opportunity
2-35
Refer to Exhibit 2.3 for brief descriptions.
a. Enron: fraudulent financial reporting
b. WorldCom: fraudulent financial reporting
c. Parmalat: fraudulent financial reporting
d. HealthSouth: fraudulent financial reporting
e. Dell: fraudulent financial reporting
f. Koss Corporation: asset misappropriation
g. Olympus: fraudulent financial reporting
h. Longtop Financial Technologies: fraudulent financial reporting

2-5
i. Peregrine Financial Group: asset misappropriation
j. Sino-Forest Corporation: fraudulent financial reporting
k. Diamond Foods, Inc.: fraudulent financial reporting
2-36
a. Professional skepticism is an attitude that includes a questioning mind and a critical
assessment of audit evidence; requires an ongoing questioning of whether the information and
audit evidence obtained suggests that a material misstatement due to fraud may exist.
b. Professional skepticism is helpful in detecting fraud because without it the external
auditor will be easily convinced of alternative explanations to the fraud that management will
provide to conceal the fraud.
c. The key behaviors necessary to successfully exercise professional skepticism include
validating information through probing questions, critically assessing evidence, and paying
attention to inconsistencies.
d. It is difficult to exercise professional skepticism in practice for a variety of reasons
including, the nature tendency to trust people (especially client personnel with whom you have
worked), lack of repeated exposure to fraud, many repeated exposures to situations that do NOT
involve fraud.
e. Personal characteristics and behaviors that might make you skeptical about an individual
include some of the following:
Providing inaccurate or conflicting evidence
Interacting in a difficult or unhelpful manner
Acting in an untrustworthy fashion
Engaging in conspicuous consumption of material possessions beyond the level to which
their salary would normally make that lifestyle possible.
Publicly available evidence exists that might help you assess whether an individual warrants
increased skepticism. Information can include: tax liens, credit scores, and legal filings.
2-37
a. If a company has good products, it would be expected that it should have comparable
profitability with other industry participants. The fact that it does not have that profitability,
coupled with a weakness in internal controls over disbursements, should lead the auditor to
embrace the idea that there is an opportunity for a disbursements fraud and that such a fraud
could be hurting the reported profitability of the company.

2-6
b. The company is doing better than its competitors and it appears to have achieved these
better results through cost control. While cost control might be a valid explanation, the auditor
should consider other potential explanations such as inappropriately capitalizing expenses,
inappropriately recognizing revenue, etc.
c. The company would appear to be using ‘window dressing’ in order to bypass debt
covenants. It is doing so by sharply discounting current sales. These actions are not necessarily
fraudulent, but they may be created to portray a misleading picture of the current economic
health of the organization.
d. This brief description mirrors that of the Koss case where the CFO was very intimidating,
not a CPA, and possessed limited accounting experience. The company did not increase profit
during her tenure. The external auditor should consider these factors to suggest a heightened risk
of fraud.
2-38
Some of the key findings of the COSO study included:
The amount and incidence of fraud remains high.
The median size of company perpetrating the fraud rose tenfold to $100 million during
the 1998-2007 time period.
There was heavy involvement in the fraud by the CEO and/or CFO.
The most common fraud involved revenue recognition.
Many of the fraud companies changed auditors.
The majority of the frauds took place at companies that were listed on the Over-The-
Counter (OTC) market rather than those listed on the NYSE or NASDAQ.
2-39
a. The various failures and environmental characteristics during the time of the Enron fraud
include:
Weak management accountability.
Weak corporate governance.
Accounting became more rule-oriented and complex.
The financial analyst community was unduly influenced by management pressure.
Bankers were unduly influenced by management pressure.
Arthur Andersen was unduly influenced by management pressure, especially since
consulting revenues at Enron were very high.
b. In terms of the fraud triangle,
Incentives: management was very concerned about managing stock prices through
keeping debt off the balance sheet; the underlying business model of the company was
not working; the company had strayed too far away from its “utility” roots and employees

2-7
were taking significant risks in the financial markets that did not yield expected profits,
thereby creating strong incentives for top management to conduct the fraud.
Opportunity: corporate governance and external auditor accountability were lacking.
Rationalization: although not discussed in the text specifically, there have been
speculations in the press that management thought they were smarter than everyone else
and that they were very confident that they could get away with the fraud. It is difficult to
know the internal rationalizations of top management.
2-40
Auditing standards historically have reflected a belief that it is not reasonable for auditors to
detect cleverly implemented frauds. However, it is increasingly clear that the general public, as
reflected in the orientation of the PCAOB, expects that auditors have a responsibility to detect
and report on material frauds. Professional auditing standards do require the auditor to plan and
perform an audit that will detect material misstatements resulting from fraud. As part of that
requirement, auditors will begin an audit with a brainstorming session that focuses on how and
where fraud could occur within the organization. Auditors also need to communicate with the
audit committee and management about the risks of fraud and how they are addressed. The
auditor should then plan the audit to be responsive to an organization’s susceptibility to fraud.
2-41
The three ways in which individuals involved in the financial reporting process, including the
external auditor, can mitigate the risk of fraudulent financial reporting include:
Acknowledging that there needs to exist a strong, highly ethical tone at the top of an
organization that permeates the corporate culture, including an effective fraud risk
management program.
Continually exercising professional skepticism, a questioning mindset that strengthens
professional objectivity, in evaluating and/or preparing financial reports.
Remember that strong communication among those involved in the financial reporting
process is critical.
Will these actions be effective? This should promote a lively debate among students if this
question is discussed in class. Some will argue that frauds happen no matter what, so these types
of actions will be futile. Others will be more optimistic, arguing that these actions, if consistently
applied, could help to mitigate fraud risk.
2-42
a. The financial literacy, integrity, and reputation of Board members enhance credibility of
the regulation and oversight of the auditing profession. Inspections by the PCAOB act as a
highly visible enforcement mechanism, hopefully leading to higher quality audits. Further,

2-8
information that is learned through the inspection process can be used as a basis for modifying
and enhancing auditing standards.
b. These sections improve auditor independence by separating consulting and auditing by
the same audit firm. The partner rotation requirement ensures that a “fresh set of eyes” will be
responsible for oversight on the engagement.
c. The “cooling off” period helps to avoid conflicts of interest between top members of the
engagement team and the client. By requiring a cooling off period, an auditor will not be unduly
influenced (or appear to be unduly influenced) by the possibility of high-level employment with
the client.
d. Audit committees clearly serve the role of the “client” of the auditor. They act as
surrogates for the shareholders who are the actual audit client. They act as the liaison between
management and the external auditor. By being independent, they gain credibility and ensure that
the external auditor can rely on them to perform their governance role. By requiring that audit
committees can hire their own attorneys and by ensuring that they have adequate monetary
resources, the external auditor has confidence that they will act as truly independent monitors of
management.
e. The certification requirements help address the risk of fraud by forcing the CEO and CFO
to take internal controls and high quality financial reporting seriously. By forcing them to sign,
they will likely require individuals below them to provide assurance that those departments or
organizational units are each committed to internal controls and high quality financial reporting
as well. Of course, a signature is just a signature! So, the likelihood that a CFO who is
committing fraud will certify falsely is probably 100%. Thus, this mechanism is not without
practical flaws.
f. It addresses off-balance sheet transactions and special purpose entities, which were the
main mechanisms used to conduct the Enron fraud.
g. A strong internal control system is critical to preventing fraud. These sections of
Sarbanes-Oxley Act mandate the disclosure of weak internal controls, thereby providing a strong
motivation to managers to ensure that controls are effective. By requiring external auditor
assurance on management’s assessment, financial statement users can believe in management’s
assertions about controls.
h. One member of the audit committee needs to be a financial expert to ensure that there is
the knowledge necessary on the audit committee to critically evaluate management’s financial
reporting and internal control choices. Without that knowledge, the committee may be unduly
influenced by management’s preferences.
i. It imposes strict penalties for destroying documents, which was an element in the
downfall of Andersen.

2-9
2-43
No, nonpublic organizations are not required to abide by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. However,
many organizations view these requirements as “best practice” and so nonpublic organizations
sometimes adhere to certain requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act voluntarily.
2-44
The major parties involved in corporate governance, and their role/activities are as follows:
Party Overview of Responsibilities
Stockholders Broad Role: Provide effective oversight through election of board
members, through approval of major initiatives (such as buying or
selling stock), and through annual reports on management
compensation from the board
Board of
Directors
Broad Role: The major representatives of stockholders;
they ensure that the organization is run according to the
organization's charter and that there is proper accountability.
Specific activities include:
• Selecting management
• Reviewing management performance and determining
compensation
• Declaring dividends
• Approving major changes, such as mergers
• Approving corporate strategy
• Overseeing accountability activities
Management Broad Role: Manage the organization effectively; provide accurate
and timely accountability to shareholders and other
stakeholders
• Formulating strategy and risk management
• Implementing effective internal controls
• Developing financial and other reports to meet public,
stakeholder, and regulatory requirements
• Managing and reviewing operations
• Implementing an effective ethical environment
Audit
Committees of
the Board of
Directors
Broad Role: Provide oversight of the internal and external audit
function and over the process of preparing the annual financial
statements and public reports on internal control
• Selecting the external audit firm
• Approving any nonaudit work performed by the audit firm
• Selecting and/or approving the appointment of the Chief
Audit Executive (Internal Auditor)
• Reviewing and approving the scope and budget of the
internal audit function

2-10
Regulatory
Organizations:
SEC, AICPA,
FASB, PCAOB,
IAASB
• Discussing audit findings with internal and external auditors,
and advising the board (and management) on specific actions that
should be taken
Broad Role: Set accounting and auditing standards dictating
underlying financial reporting and auditing concepts; set the
expectations of audit quality and accounting quality
• Establishing accounting principles
• Establishing auditing standards
• Interpreting previously issued standards
• Enforcing adherence to relevant standards and rules for
public companies and their auditors
2-45
These principles include:
• The board's fundamental objective should be to build long-term sustainable growth in
shareholder value for the corporation.
• Successful corporate governance depends upon successful management of the company, as
management has the primary responsibility for creating a culture of performance with
integrity and ethical behavior.
• Effective corporate governance should be integrated with the company's business strategy and
not viewed as simply a compliance obligation.
• Transparency is a critical element of effective corporate governance, and companies should
make regular efforts to ensure that they have sound disclosure policies and practices.
• Independence and objectivity are necessary attributes of board members; however, companies
must also strike the right balance in the appointment of independent and non-independent
directors to ensure an appropriate range and mix of expertise, diversity, and knowledge on the
board.
2-46
a. Independent directors are more likely to stand up to management and report fraud than
those directors that are not independent.
b. Holding meetings without management present enables a frank and open discussion,
including enabling board members with concerns about potential fraud or weak management to
alert other board members to express those concerns.
c. By having a nominating/corporate governance committee composed of independent
directors, the organization is more likely to attract high quality board members that are not
unduly influenced by management. And by having a corporate governance committee, this
important element of control achieves prominence in the organization and acts as a deterrent to
fraud.

2-11
d. Having a written charter and an annual performance evaluation ensures that the
committee responsibilities are appropriate, and that the responsibilities are actually accomplished
(or shareholders are alerted if they are not accomplished). Accomplishing such activities acts as a
deterrent to fraud.
e. By having an independent compensation committee, top management will be less able to
inappropriately influence compensation decisions for themselves.
f. Having a written charter and an annual performance evaluation ensures that the
deterrent to fraud.
g. This requirement ensures an adequate size and independence of the audit committee,
which acts to strengthen governance and deter fraud.
h. Having a written charter and an annual performance evaluation ensures that the
deterrent to fraud.
i. These requirements encourage a high quality set of corporate governance behaviors,
which taken together act as a deterrent to fraud.
j. By making the ethics issue a prominent disclosure, it encourages management and other
individuals within the organization to take it more seriously. It acts to encourage a high quality
“tone at the top”.
k. By requiring this disclosure, users of the financial statements can evaluate for themselves
whether the foreign companies’ governance is adequate, or gain an appreciation for governance
differences. This knowledge encourages companies to adopt corporate governance mechanisms
that they otherwise may not, thereby affecting the control environment and the opportunity for
fraud. It also helps users know where deficiencies may exist, making them more skeptical.
l. It attempts to ensure that the top-level executives place the appropriate importance on
corporate governance and that they would be required to disclose if their company is not
compliant, which would alert users to heightened fraud risk.
m. An internal audit function is important to the control environment. Having that oversight
internally improves internal control, thereby deterring fraud.
2-47
a. This requirement forces audit committees to take internal controls seriously, and to
consider any potential independence impairments for the external auditor. Both internal controls
and high quality external auditing are critical for the prevention and/or detection of fraud.

2-12
b. This requires the audit committee to be engaged and informed about financial accounting
at the company; being engaged and informed enhances the ability of the audit committee to
detect fraud.
c. Analyst interactions and the pressure to meet their expectations provide incentives for
fraud. By requiring that the audit committee discuss the earnings release process, audit
committees have more control over what and how management engages with analysts, and that
control should assist in deterring fraud.
d. Understanding risk assessment and risk management should alert the audit committee to
weaknesses therein, thereby encouraging positive change, which should thereby deter fraud.
e. Meeting separately with these groups encourages frank conversations about concerns,
and such communication is helpful to deterring or detecting fraud.
f. By understanding the nature of any problems that the external auditor is having with
management, the audit committee gets a good sense of potential management aggressiveness,
and the sources of disagreement between the auditor and management. In addition, this
requirement gives the external auditor someone to turn to in reporting fraud on the part of
management.
g. By setting hiring policies regarding employees of the external audit firm, the audit
committee can ensure that management is not exerting undue influence over the members of the
audit team by possibly promising them employment at the company.
h. By reporting regularly to the board of directors, the audit committee is put in a position of
power in the organization, thereby giving them the clout necessary to oversee management and
deter fraud.
2-48
a. The audit committee must be comprised of “outside” independent directors, one of whom
must be a financial expert. The audit committee now has the authority to hire and fire the
external auditor, and will therefore serve as the auditor’s primary contact, especially for
accounting and audit related issues. In addition, at many organizations the audit committee sets
the scope for and hires internal auditors. They would also review the work of both internal and
external auditors.
b. The audit committee certainly takes on much more responsibility with the new
regulation. They will now be much more informed about the audit function and financial
reporting processes within their company. The auditor must report all significant problems to the
audit committee. For auditors, the reporting relationship should reinforce the need to keep the
third-party users in mind in dealing with reporting choices.

Other documents randomly have
different content

At which Loveday was full of gratitude, and thanked her new host
very heartily and prettily.
So Bessie hurried in to attend to her fire, and as a cold wind was
blowing in from the sea, she bade the children follow her.
“A big catch of crabs and lobsters.”
“Now I’ll unpack my box,” thought Loveday, and, Bessie having
unstrapped and unlocked it for her, she began. There was a little
white chest of drawers in the room, and a big cupboard built into the

wall, so that she had plenty of room for her belongings. Her little
frocks, though she had quite a lot of them, took up a very small
space indeed, but two of her sun-hats covered one shelf of the
cupboard, and she had to take another shelf for her best one and
her red and blue bérets. Her boots and shoes she arranged very
neatly at the bottom of the cupboard—at least Aaron did for her, for
by this time he had followed her in, and had grown quite friendly,
and he worked really busily until Loveday took out a big monkey and
presented it to him, after which he did nothing but gaze at it and
hug it with delight, and Loveday, who had been a little shy of
offering it to him when she saw how big a boy he was, felt greatly
relieved on seeing his pleasure.
“After all,” she said to herself, “he isn’t such a very big boy—he is
rather a baby, and I am very glad.”
Then Bessie came to call them to supper, and soon after that
Loveday, holding tight to her elephant, was sound asleep in her
snow-white room; and Aaron, still hugging his monkey, was snoring
contentedly under his gay patchwork quilt.
“A rare lot of wild beasts we’ve a-got in our little bit of a place to-
night,” said John Lobb, with a hearty laugh. “’Tis lucky they b’ain’t
given to bellowing, or we should be given notice to quit, I reckon!”
When Loveday awoke the next morning, the first thing she noticed
was the curious dull roar of the sea. Then she opened her eyes and
looked about her. The next moment she was out of bed, drawing
back her white curtains to look out at the new, wonderful world
without. There was little to see, though, from her window, for the
cliff rose sheer up, and between the house and the cliff there was
only a little bit of fenced-in ground. It was too close under the
shadow of the cold rock for anything to grow in it, and the house,
though it kept off the wind and the salt spray, also kept off the sun.
To make up for this, John Lobb had a piece of garden ground at the
top of the cliff, where he worked when he wasn’t out fishing.

But when Loveday looked out he was in the yard at the back,
examining the nets that were spread on the palings to dry. A
moment later, Aaron, still clasping his monkey, ran out and joined his
father.
“Oh, Aaron is dressed!” thought Loveday. “I ought to be. Why didn’t
Bessie call me?”
She put her head out of her bedroom door, and called:
“Bessie! Bessie! Please can I have my bath! I am sorry I am so late,”
she added, as Bessie appeared with the bath and the water.
“It isn’t late, Miss Loveday,” said Bessie smilingly. “It has only this
minute gone seven by my old clock, and that’s always galloping.”
“Only seven!” cried Loveday. “What are you all up so early for? Is
anybody going away?”
“’Tisn’t early for us, miss. My husband is going out all day fishing,
and he’s got to catch the tide.”
“There is always something that has got to be caught,” sighed
Loveday—“the train, or the tide, or the fish, or the post. But I’m very
glad I am up so early, now I am up. I want to go out and see what
things are like in the morning. They generally look different then,
don’t they?”
“Oh dear,” she said quite apologetically, when presently she came to
the breakfast-table, “I am afraid I am very hungry. I hope you won’t
be frightened when you see what a lot I eat.”
She really felt quite ashamed of her big appetite, but John and
Bessie only laughed, and John said:
“That’s good hearing, missie. Nothing you can do in that way’ll
frighten us, seeing as we’m ’customed to Aaron and me.”
John sat at the head of the table, nearest the fireplace, while Bessie
sat outside, where she could easily reach the kettle or the teapot on
the stove. Loveday’s chair was placed at the end, facing John, while
the table was pulled out a little way for Aaron to sit in the window

amongst the geraniums and cinerarias. In her heart Loveday wished
that she could sit in there, but at the same time she was rather
pleased with her own position; it seemed older and more dignified.
After breakfast there came the excitement of seeing off the boat,
and then, when that was done, Loveday felt that she really could
settle down for a moment and have time to look about her. Aaron
was very anxious to see her toys and all the other treasures she had
brought with her, for this was a much greater novelty to him than
picking up shells or hunting for crabs, besides which Bessie would
not let them go alone clambering over the rocks, or paddling in the
pools, and she could not go with them for a little while, as she had
her house to set straight and the dinner to get.
So they sat on the sands within sight of Bessie, and played with a
grocer’s shop that Loveday had brought, and a box of cubes, and a
popgun, and a monkey and an elephant, and sundry other things,
but to her surprise none of the things pleased Aaron so much as did
the books. He turned the pages of her fairy-tales over and over, and
gazed at the pictures, and asked questions about them, until at last
Loveday grew quite tired of answering him.
“Haven’t you got any books?” she asked at last rather impatiently,
for she would have been much better pleased to have had his help
in building sand-castles.
“No, I have never had a book in all my life,” he said wistfully. “I
didn’t know there was any with picshers in them like these here.”
“Didn’t you?” cried Loveday, scarcely able to believe him. “I wish I’d
known it; I’d have brought you one of mine.”
“But I knows some stories,” he said proudly—“lots! All ’bout piskies,
and fairies, and giants, and buccas, and——”
“What are buccas?” interrupted Loveday eagerly.
“Why—why, little people, of course,” said Aaron.
Loveday looked at him to see if he was “telling true” or laughing at
her, but Aaron was quite serious.

“Are you telling truth or making up?” she asked.
It was a question she was often obliged to put to Geoffrey and
Priscilla when they told her things.
“True, honour bright,” said Aaron earnestly, just a little indignant.
“Don’t you ever read about buccas in your books?”
Loveday shook her head.
“Are they fairies?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Good ones or bad?”
“Good, I b’lieve,” said Aaron. “I never heard of their doing anybody
any harm.”
“Have you ever seen one?” asked Loveday, in a lowered voice.
“No,” said Aaron; “they lives in caves and wells, mostly—so father
says—and they’m always digging. You ask father to tell ’ee about
them.”
“No, you tell me. I want to hear about them now. Go on.”
“Well, if I tell you one story, you must tell me one.”
“All right,” said Loveday; “go on. It must be about buccas, ’cause I
never heard about them before, and—and I don’t think there are
any.”
“Aw, hush! Don’t ’ee say such things!” cried Aaron, quite scared.
“You’d be sorry if you was to get Barker’s knee, and you will most
likely, if you say things like that. They do all sorts of things to folks
that ’fend them.”
Loveday felt rather frightened, but she would not let Aaron know it if
she could help it.
“I thought you said they were good fairies,” she said half irritably.
“So they are, but fairies never likes folks to say they don’t believe in
’em. That was how Barker got his bad knee.”

“Go on—tell,” said Loveday.
“Well, ’twas like this: Barker, he was a great lazy fellow what
wouldn’t work nor nothing, and he laughed at those that did; and
when his father said to him that the buccas put him to shame, he
said there wasn’t any, and he said he’d prove it: he’d go to the well
where folks said they lived, and where they could hear them
working, and he’d listen, and he’d listen, and if he heard them he’d
believe in them, but not else. So he went to the well every day, and
lay down in the grass close by all day long. And he heard the little
buccas as plain as plain; they was digging and shovelling and
laughing and talking all the time. But Barker, he wouldn’t tell
anybody that he’d heard them, and he went every day and lay down
by the well to listen to them, and soon he got to understand their
talk, and how long they worked; and when they stopped working
they hid away their tools, but they always told where they was going
to hide them.”
“That was silly!” said Loveday. “There’s no sense in doing that.”
“Hoosh!” said Aaron nervously; “you’d best be careful what you’m
saying. One night Barker heard one little bucca say, ‘I’m going to
hide my pick under the ferns.’ ‘I shan’t,’ says another; ‘I shall leave
mine on Barker’s knee.’”
“Oh!” gasped Loveday, “then they knew his name. Did they know all
the time that he was there listening to them?”
“I reckon so,” said Aaron gravely. “Little people knows everything
mostly; that’s why you’ve got to be so careful.”
“Go on,” said Loveday eagerly.
“Well, Barker, he was prettily frightened when he heard that, and he
was just going to jump up and run away, when whump! something
hit him right on the knee like anything, and oh!” groaned Aaron, his
eyes big and round with the excitement of his story, “it ’urt him so
he bellowed like a great bull, and he kept on saying, ‘Take ’em away;
take them there tools away; take your old pick and shovel off my
knee, I tell ’e!’ But the little buccas only laughed, and the more he

bellowed, the more they laughed. He tried to get up, but ’twas ever
so long before he could, and he had a stiff knee all the rest of his
life.”
“Did people know why?” asked Loveday.
“Yes, that they did, and everybody was fine and careful after not to
laugh at the buccas, for fear they’d get Barker’s knee too.”
“I think,” said Loveday, “I like the piskies best—I mean, of course, I
like the buccas too, but I love the piskies ’cause they come and do
nice things to help people, and I love the fairies ’cause they are so
pretty.”
“There’s a fairy ring up top cliff,” said Aaron, “where they comes and
dances night-times. I’ll show it to you some day.”
“Oh, do!” cried Loveday. “We’ve got one near home, too, but I’ve
never seen any fairies near it—have you?”
“No, but I haven’t been out at night, and that’s when they come.”
“Come along, dears; I am ready now,” said Bessie, appearing at the
door. “Come in and have a glass of milk and some cake, and then
we’ll go and look for crabs and things, shall we?”
Loveday and Aaron were on their feet in a moment.
“I must get my bucket and spade if we are going to get crabs and
shells,” said Loveday, and dashed into the house, leaving all her toys
scattered on the sand.

L
CHAPTER IX
MISS POTTS COMES TO TEA
OVEDAY had been gone more than a week, Geoffrey was nearly well
again, and Priscilla was on the mend—the dreadful pain in her
head had almost left her, so had her other aches and bruises, but
the broken arm bothered her a good deal, and she was very weak and
languid, so that it was still necessary that she should be kept very
quiet and not be allowed to exert herself.
She had reached the stage, though, when it becomes tiresome to
keep still; when one wants to do things, yet feels one can’t; or others
want one to do things, and one feels one cannot possibly do them,
and altogether one is cross and teasy without knowing why.
To read made her head ache, and it was tiresome to hold up a book
with only one hand, and to have none to turn the pages with; neither
could she very well play with her dolls, or her bricks, or anything with
but one hand. Her mother read to her sometimes, and talked to her;
but, of course, she could not do so all the time, and Priscilla would
have grown tired even if she could.
“Mother,” she said one day, after every one had tried to think of
something to amuse her, “I know what I would like very, very much
indeed!”
“Well, dear, tell me what it is?”
“I would like to ask Miss Potts to come and see me. I like her so
much, and I think she must miss me, because I often went in to talk
to her to cheer her up after I knew she was an ‘only’!”
“Very well, darling; I am going out presently, and I will ask her. I don’t
quite know, though, how she could manage to leave her shop.”

“I don’t think it would matter much if she did—not if she came while
the children are in school, ’cause there isn’t any one else to go and
buy much—except on Saturdays.”
“I see. Well, I will go and talk to her about it, and see what she has to
say.”
Priscilla had always felt drawn to Miss Potts, the quiet, lonely woman
who lived in a world of toys now, yet looked as though she had never
been a child or played with any; and ever since Miss Potts had told her
she was alone in the world, Priscilla had had quite a motherly feeling
for her. She felt quite excited and pleased at the prospect of her
visitor.
She was so pleased, that she did not know how to wait until her
mother came back with the answer to her message; and then she
wished, oh so much, that she had asked if Miss Potts should be invited
to tea with her. Never mind, she decided, she would ask mother that
when she came back with her news. This thought comforted and
soothed her so much that she was able to lie still more contentedly,
and wait, and while she was waiting, her thoughts flew to Loveday.
She tried to picture what she would be doing at that moment.
Loveday was not, of course, able to write much, for she was very
young, and she had only just begun to write real letters; but Bessie
had written a good deal about her and Aaron, and the fun they had;
and mother had told her all she possibly could about the place, and
the house, and the sea, and shops, and the station and everything
else she could think of, and now Priscilla was looking forward to the
time when she and Geoffrey would go down to Porthcallis and join
Loveday.
She was just picturing to herself the journey down, and Loveday
waiting for them on the platform, when she heard the front door
opened and closed again.
“Mother must have got back already!” she cried joyfully. “I hope Miss
Potts can come.”
Then she heard footsteps, and a moment later the door opened, and
in came mother, followed by Miss Potts herself! Priscilla could scarcely

believe her eyes.
“Here she is!” cried Mrs. Carlyon. “Here is your longed-for visitor. I
would not let her stay even to put on her best bonnet, or her mantle,
or anything.”
“No; oh dear, no! I don’t know what a sight I am looking, I am sure!”
said Miss Potts nervously. “But your dear ma whisked me off, so I’d no
time to change my frock or do anything but pop on my old second-
best bonnet and shawl. I hope you’ll excuse me——”
Poor Miss Potts chattered on volubly, not because she really minded
much, but because she was shy and nervous, and sometimes shy and
nervous people feel that they must keep on saying something.
Priscilla put out her hand to clasp Miss Potts’s hand, and then put up
her face to be kissed. The tears came into Miss Potts’s faded, tired
eyes as she stooped and kissed her.
“I think you are looking—oh, ever so nice!” said Priscilla warmly. “I like
you in that bonnet better than any. I think it suits you better.”
“Do you really now, missie?” said Miss Potts, evidently relieved and
pleased. “And how are you, dearie? Are you better?”
“Oh yes, thank you,” said Priscilla—“ever so much! I think I shall be
quite well soon, and then we are going to Porthcallis.”
“Dear, dear,” cried Miss Potts, “that will be nice. Nobody could help
getting well down there in the sunshine and sea-breezes.”
“Do you like the sea?” asked Priscilla. “Did you ever stay by it when
you were a little girl?”
“Indeed, I did,” said Miss Potts. “I was born by it, and grew up by it till
I was turned twenty.”
“You were born by the sea!” cried Priscilla. “Oh, how lovely—and I
never knew it!”
Miss Potts at once became more interesting than ever. Priscilla tried to
picture her digging in the sands and wading through the pools.

“But how could you bear to come away?” she cried. “I am sure I
should never leave the sea if I could help it!”
“Ah, my dear, it all depends!” said Miss Potts, with a sad shake of the
head. “I haven’t set eyes on the sea since I left it, and I—I hope I
never do again. I couldn’t bear it, even now.”
“Oh, how sad!” said Priscilla, looking at her with wide eyes full of
sympathetic interest. “Did your little brothers and sisters live there
too?” she asked gently.
“Yes, missie, and died there,” said Miss Potts sadly. “Every one of us
but mother and me; that’s why I’ve never looked on it since. To me it
is like a great, sly, deceitful monster, always sighing and moaning for
somebody, or foaming and storming in rage. We came away, mother
and me, after the last was drowned; we couldn’t bear it any longer.”
“Poor Miss Potts!” said little Priscilla, laying her hand on Miss Potts’s
worn ones, moving so restlessly in her lap.
Mrs. Carlyon had gone away and left them together, and Miss Potts
had dropped into a chair close to Priscilla’s sofa.
“You don’t think the sea will roar for Loveday, and swallow her up, do
you?” asked Priscilla, in a very anxious voice.
“Oh no, my dear; Porthcallis is a very safe place!” said Miss Potts
emphatically. “P’r’aps I shouldn’t have told you anything about—about
my experience. But where we lived it was very wild and rocky, and my
folk were all seafaring; ’twas their work to go to sea. Out of all my
family that lies in the burying-ground, only two of them are men; all
the rest of our men-folk lies at the bottom of the sea.”
“But you had sisters, hadn’t you, Miss Potts?”
“Yes, dear, two; but the sea had them as well. One of them, Annie—
she was the youngest—was out shrimping by herself one day, when
the tide caught her and carried her out. Hettie saw her, and ran into
the sea to save her, but——”
“Yes?” whispered Priscilla softly, her eyes full of tears. “Couldn’t she
reach her?”

“Yes, she reached her. Father, coming home that night from the
fishing, found them clasped together, and brought them home,” said
poor Miss Potts. “I never saw a smile on his face from that day till just
a year later, when the sea claimed him too.”
“Oh, how dreadful! I shall never like the sea again,” said Priscilla,
wiping away her tears. “I don’t wonder you came away. Did you come
straight to Trelint?”
“Yes,” said Miss Potts more cheerfully; “and I felt at home here at
once. I shouldn’t care to live anywhere else now.”
“Neither should I,” said Priscilla. “I love home, and Trelint, and—oh,
everything; and I would rather live here than by the sea, after all.”
Mrs. Carlyon opened the door, and put her head in.
“Alma is going to bring you some tea presently,” she said brightly.
“Miss Potts said she could stay and have some with you. I am sorry to
say I have to go out, but I know you will take care of each other.
Good-bye, darling, for the time.”
Priscilla beamed with pleasure.
“That is just what I was wanting. I am so glad you can stay, Miss
Potts. I don’t s’pose any one will go to the shop, do you?”
She did not for a moment mean to be rude or unkind.
“No, I expect not,” said Miss Potts a little sadly.
But in a moment or two the door opened again, and in walked
Geoffrey. At sight of Miss Potts he drew up, and stepped back towards
the door as though thunderstruck.
“Ah!” he cried, in a hollow, melodramatic voice, “here she is! False
woman, I have found you. For ten minutes and more have I been
kicking your door with my noble toes——”
Miss Potts groaned.
“And the paint but just dry!” she murmured.

“But no answer could I get,” went on Geoffrey, “and at last”—lowering
his voice and continuing in a tragic whisper—“at last I dropped my
ha’penny back into my pocket and came away. ‘I must lay it out
elsewhere,’ I moaned. But when I reached Ma Tickell’s shop, Pa Tickell
was behind the door, and in his eye I read that he was going to
request me to say my ‘twelve times’ backwards, and I knew he would
not believe that my illness alone had made me forget it, so I crossed
over and gazed in sadly at Ma Wall’s, but Ma Wall looked at me so
scornfully that I came home; and here I find you gossip, gossip,
gossip, and my ha’penny burning a hole in my pocket all the time. You
know, Miss Potts, it is not the way to do business.”
“I know,” said Miss Potts, laughing; “but if you can tell me what you
wanted particularly I’ll send it up as soon as I get home.”
“I couldn’t,” said Geoffrey solemnly; “I must see things before I can
lay out my money to the best advantage.”
“Well, I promise not to be very long, Master Geoffrey, and then you
shall go back with me, if you will, and choose what you like.”
“What is this nice little parcel?” asked Geoffrey, touching one that had
been lying on the table ever since Miss Potts came in.
“Oh,” cried Miss Potts, jumping up with a little scream—“oh, how
foolish of me! Why, that’s something I brought for Miss Priscilla, if
she’ll accept it; and with talking so much, and being so glad to see
her, it had clean gone out of my head;” and she placed the nice-
looking little parcel in Priscilla’s hands.
“Well,” exclaimed Geoffrey, pretending to be deeply hurt, “I think you
might have thought of my feelings, and waited till I had gone away. I
felt certain it was for me, and now——”
Poor Miss Potts looked quite troubled, but Priscilla’s joyful cry rang out
before she could speak.
“Oh, how lovely! Oh, you dear, kind Miss Potts! Look, Geoffrey; we can
both use it. Isn’t it lovely?” and Priscilla held out a box of paints, just
such another as they had bought for Loveday. “And they are sans
poison, too.”

“Good!” cried Geoffrey. “Now I’ll be able to paint for you while you
look on. Miss Potts, you are a dear; you understand a fellow’s feelings
before he understands them himself.”
Priscilla leaned up to kiss her thanks.
“I wonder how you always know exactly what people want?” she said
gravely.
“P’r’aps it’s through my having a pretty good memory,” said Miss Potts,
flushing and smiling with pleasure. “I seem able to remember what I
used to think I’d like when I was little myself.”
“And then, were you very glad—as glad as I am—when you got what
you’d been thinking about?” asked Priscilla.
“I never got it, my dear,” said Miss Potts; “’twas all in my thoughts,
and never got beyond. But I had a fine lot of pleasure that way; ’twas
almost as good as having the things themselves, I think.”
“Oh no, not quite,” said Priscilla, turning to her paint-box again.
Then Nurse came in with the tea, and laid it on a table close to
Priscilla’s sofa. Miss Potts seemed rather nervous and fluttery at
having tea there with the children, but very pleased; and Nurse smiled
on her, and admired the paint-box, and brought in some especial
cakes, because she remembered Miss Potts liked them, and everything
and everybody was as nice as nice could be.
It was a beautiful tea that they had—at least, to them it seemed so,
and Miss Potts often afterwards spoke of it, and sat and thought about
it in the long, quiet evenings she spent alone in the dark little parlour
behind her shop. They did not hurry over the meal—in fact, they
lingered so long that Mrs. Carlyon returned before they had done, and
presently the carriage drove up, bringing back Dr. Carlyon from his
afternoon rounds.
When Mrs. Carlyon stooped over her little daughter to kiss her, Prissy
put her one arm round her mother’s neck and drew her face down
close. She knew it was not polite to whisper in company, but she
wanted very much to ask a very, very important question, and she

would have no other opportunity; and as Miss Potts was talking to
Geoffrey, and Nurse was rattling the tea-things, she thought no one
would notice that she was doing more than return her mother’s kiss.
Mrs. Carlyon quickly heard the whispered request, and, going out of
the room under the pretence of removing her hat, soon returned with
a thin, large envelope, which she slipped under Priscilla’s sofa-pillow.
Then Miss Potts got up to go.
“I hope you’ll excuse me, Mrs. Carlyon, for staying so long. I didn’t
mean to be more than a minute, and I’ve been the best part of two
hours.”
She went over to Priscilla to say “Good-bye.” It was quite an ordeal to
her to make her farewells and leave the room under the eyes of so
many. She wanted to express her gratitude, but she was afraid of
saying too much; she was also afraid of saying too little and seeming
ungrateful.
“Good-bye, Miss Priscilla,” she said. “I—I hope you will soon be well
and able to run about again.”
“Thank you,” said Priscilla politely. She was rather nervous and excited
too, and her eyes were bright and eager. “I shall come to see you
before I go to Porthcallis, and—and here is something I’ve got for you,
but you mustn’t look at it until you get home. It is something to keep
you from feeling quite so lonely when you are in your little parlour by
yourself after the shop is shut.”
“Thank you, missie, I am sure,” said Miss Potts gratefully.
And whether she guessed what was in the packet no one ever knew,
but she seemed very pleased and overcome. And when the poor
lonely woman got back, as Priscilla said, to her lonely parlour behind
the closed shop, and, opening the envelope, looked on the three
bright faces in the photograph, her tears really did overflow—tears of
pleasure and gratitude for the beautiful photograph, but most of all for
the kind thought and affection which had prompted the gift.
“Dear little lady,” she said, gazing affectionately at Priscilla’s eager,
serious face and wondering eyes; “she’s got a heart of gold; while as

for that dear boy, why, I love every hair of his head and every tone of
his voice, and the more he tries to tease me the more I love him, I
think; and as for little Miss Loveday, why, no one could help loving her
if one tried to.”

L
CHAPTER X
THE FAIRY RING
OVEDAY, meanwhile, was having a most interesting and beautiful
time, and she and Aaron had become great friends. They had some
little tiffs and quarrels too, of course, but not very serious ones.
The most serious perhaps was that when they disagreed about their
names, when Loveday was certainly rather unkind, and Aaron grew
angry and was rude. They were both tired, and very hungry; so
hungry that it seemed as though the dinner hour was delaying on
purpose.
“I don’t know why people think they mustn’t eat till the clock strikes
so many times,” said Loveday crossly; “I think it would be much more
sensible to eat when you are hungry.”
“You’ve got to know what time dinner is to be, or you wouldn’t know
when to put things on to cook. I should have thought you’d have
known that,” said Aaron; and he spoke in a tone that annoyed
Loveday more than anything—a kind of superior, older tone, as though
he were talking to a baby.
Loveday did not reply, but sat and looked at Aaron as if in deep
thought; her eyes sparkled wickedly, though. “I do think,” she said at
last, speaking very slowly and distinctly, “that yours is the ugliest
name I ever heard. I can’t think how any one could choose such a
name!”
She was sitting on the sand, her elbow on her knee, her chin in her
hand. Aaron was lying near her, flat on his back. When he heard her
he sat up very straight, his face quite red with anger. Loveday was
cool and calm, and spoke with a deliberate scorn that hurt him more
than anything else she could have done.

His name was that of his father and grandfather, and he had been
rather proud of it hitherto.
“I—I think it’s a fine name,” he stammered; “so does everybody but
you; and you can’t say anything, yours is ugly enough—it’s a silly
name too.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” said Loveday calmly. “I think it is a very pretty
name, so does everybody; but of course you don’t know, you are so
young.”
“Yes, I do,” blustered Aaron; “I know as well as anybody, and I call it
ugly, a silly girl’s name,” with great scorn.
“Well, of course, I shouldn’t be called by a boy’s name,” she retorted
scornfully; “but if I had been a boy, and they’d christened me Aaron,
why, I—I wouldn’t answer to it!”
“Wouldn’t you!” scoffed Aaron; “you’d have been only too glad to.”
“There are so many pretty names too,” went on Loveday, ignoring his
last remark, and gazing at him in a musing way. “Douglas, and Gerald,
and Ronald, and——”
“I’d be ’shamed to be called by any of them, silly things! Just like a
girl’s!”
“Yes, but they aren’t—they’re for boys; you might just as well say my
name was like a boy’s—it is rather like some.” Then, after looking at
him thoughtfully for a moment, she added slowly, “I think I shall call
you ‘Adolphus,’ Aaron is so ugly.”
“If you do, I won’t answer,” cried Aaron, springing to his feet, really
angry now; “you ain’t going to call me out of my name. If you do, I’ll
—I’ll call you Jane!”
Loveday giggled. “I don’t mind a bit!” she said gaily; “I am christened
that already, and my sister is called Priscilla Mary, and you are going
to be called Aaron Adolphus.”
“I’m not! I shan’t speak to you, and I won’t answer to it,” began
Aaron, when suddenly his mother’s voice called to them across the
sands.

“Come along, children—dinner is ready at last!”
Loveday sprang at once to her feet. “Come along, Adolphus,” she said
naughtily. If Aaron had but laughed, and taken no notice of her
teasing, Loveday would probably have found no fun in it, and have
stopped very soon, but he was very cross indeed, and sulked over his
dinner, and the afternoon might have been spoilt if Bessie had not
been so good-tempered and kind.
“We are going to change our names,” said Loveday, beginning her
teasing again as soon as they had begun to eat.
“Oh!” said Bessie, “and what are you to be called now?”
“Well, Aaron is to be called Adolphus, only he doesn’t seem to like it,
and I am called Jane, and you—let me see, I’ll call you—” Loveday
thought and thought, but could not think of anything that quite
pleased her.
“Well, I don’t mind what it is,” said Bessie, “as long as you don’t call
me ‘Bread and Cheese,’ and eat me.” It was an old saying, but a new
one to the children, and they both laughed so much that Aaron forgot
his sulks, and Loveday her teasing.
“I will call you Mother Dutch Cheese,” laughed Aaron.
“Then there won’t be much of me left by to-morrow,” said Bessie,
pretending to look frightened.
“I will call you—” began Loveday, speaking very slowly, for she was
trying all the time to think of something very funny to say.
“I wonder,” said Bessie, “if, instead of thinking what you shall call me,
you would like to pay a call for me this afternoon?”
The children looked at her, not quite understanding. Bessie explained:
“I want Aaron to go up to Mr. Winter’s with a message, and I thought
you would like to go too, Miss Loveday.”
“I’d love to!” cried Loveday, who had been longing ever since she
came to Porthcallis to go up the cliff-path to the very top, mounting

the little steps, and holding on by the little rail. “When shall we go?
Now?”
“Finish your dinner first, and sit still for a bit; then I will tidy you both,
for Mr. Winter’s housekeeper, Mrs. Tucker, is a very noticing body.”
After the meal was over, and Aaron had said grace, and they had with
great difficulty kept quiet for a little while, Bessie began to tidy them.
Aaron, beyond having a good wash and his hair brushed, had only a
clean holland tunic put on, but Loveday was anxious to make more of
a toilette.
“Don’t you think,” she said, “that I had better put on this?” dragging
out from the drawer a pretty little frock of white silk muslin with blue
harebells all over it.
“Oh no,” said Bessie; “one of your little cotton over-alls will be much
the best.”
Loveday looked disappointed and doubtful; in her heart she felt sure
that Bessie did not know what was correct.
“But if Mr. Winter was to see me——”
“Oh dear, you needn’t trouble about Mr. Winter; he keeps well out of
the way if there is anybody about; but if he did happen to see you, he
wouldn’t know whether you’d got on silk or cotton, or blue or yellow.”
“I think he’d notice my white silk sash with the roses on it.”
“Well, I don’t, missie. But if he did, he’d only think it was very
unsuitable for going up and down cliff-paths; and so it is, too. If you
were to slip, why, you’d most likely ruin it for ever. Now be a good
little girl, and if you want to please Mr. Winter or Mrs. Tucker with your
looks, you’ll go in your nice clean print over-all and sun-hat. You shall
wear a white belt about your waist, for fear you might trip on your
loose frock going up that steep path.”

“‘Don’t let us look any more.’”
Loveday was not satisfied, but she was so pleased and excited at the
thought of going to the big, mysterious house where the blinds were
always drawn, and the master was never seen, that she had no room
for any other feeling, and they started off in great good humour.
Aaron was so afraid that Loveday would remember and call him
Adolphus again, that he did all he could to keep her mind off it, and
talked incessantly, telling her such wonderful tales.

“If Mrs. Tucker doesn’t keep us too long,” said Aaron, “I’ll show you
the Fairy Ring, where they come and dance every night at twelve
o’clock. It is right on top of the cliff, and not far from Mr. Winter’s.”
“That will be lovely!” cried Loveday delightedly. “Let’s sit down for a
minute; I’m tired.”
So they sat down on one of the little steps, and looked down and
around and all about them. Already the cottage seemed ever so far
off, and so tiny.
“It looks as if there could be only one little room in it, doesn’t it?” said
Loveday. “And oh, how far away the sea looks, and that little boat!
Why, it is quite a little teeny-tiny thing. Oh, don’t let’s look any more;
it makes my head go round so.”
“I’ll sit outside,” said Aaron; “it won’t seem so bad then.”
They changed places, but even then Loveday did not like it.
“Let’s go on,” she said, “up where we can’t see any of it.”
So on they went, and at last reached the green grassy top, and a bit
of road which led to the gate of Mr. Winter’s house.
Though Loveday had heard about the closed house and the drawn
blinds, it still gave her quite a shock when she saw it. There was such
a look of desolation, and sadness, and neglect about the whole place.
On the side facing the sea, the flower-beds were overgrown with
weeds and flowers which straggled about in a wild tangle, clinging
together and choking each other; the drawn blinds were faded, the
frames of the fast-shut windows were cracked, and badly in want of
some coats of paint. A rose-bush, that at one time must have almost
covered the front of the house, had fallen, perhaps during the storms
of the past winter, and as it fell so it lay, twisted and broken, and
choking the wretched plants which were beneath it.
Loveday felt quite saddened by the sight of it all, and the story of the
poor drowned boy and his heart-broken father became terribly real to
her—so real that she longed to be able to do something to comfort
the poor man. “If only he would open his blinds and windows, and

have his garden tidied up, I’m sure he wouldn’t feel so miserable. I
think I should cry all day long if I lived here,” she whispered.
The situation of the house itself seemed almost too lonely to be
borne. There was no other dwelling-place, or sign of human being,
within sight, only a wide, wide space of bare brown fields on two
sides; the grassy cliff-tops with the sea in the distance on the third;
and on the fourth nothing but the heaving, calling sea; while the wind,
always blowing there, swept along unchecked, winter or summer,
storm or calm, keeping up an incessant wailing around the house; and
the wail of the wind and the call of the gulls alone broke the silence.
It was not to be wondered at that a feeling of awe fell on whomsoever
entered that gate. It fell on both the children now, and they walked
up softly, almost stealthily, for the sound of their footsteps on the
white pebbles seemed to jar in that sad silence. Aaron led the way,
and Loveday followed, holding fast to his tunic. She was glad now that
she had not worn her smart frock or sash; for even she, young as she
was, felt that they would have been out of place there and then.
Aaron led the way to what was presumably the front door, but a door
so bare of paint, so neglected looking, that Loveday thought it could
never be used. The stones of the steps were green, and the weeds
grew up between them. But in answer to Aaron’s knock the door was
quickly opened by Mrs. Tucker, the housekeeper. She looked keenly at
Loveday, but she did not say anything, and when she had taken the
note Aaron had brought, and heard his message, she went in and
closed the door again quite sharply. But in the moment or so it had
been open Loveday had had time to catch a glimpse of a big stone
hall, and a grandfather’s clock, which ticked with the hollow note
clocks in empty houses usually have.
Mrs. Tucker looked so glum and unsmiling that the children were quite
glad to get away from her, and they hurried out of the garden much
more quickly than they entered it.
Once outside, Aaron seemed to lose his awe, and his spirits returned,
but Loveday did not so soon recover. She felt she wanted to do
something for Mr. Winter to make him feel less sad and

uncomfortable, yet she felt quite helpless, especially since she had
seen Mrs. Tucker. If one had to get past her before one could see him,
it really seemed as though it never could be done.
“Now then for the Fairy Ring,” said Aaron, as soon as they got outside.
In their relief at getting away from that grim place, they both took to
their heels and ran over a great stretch of short grass, burnt brown
and slippery by the hot sun, until they came to a large level space on
almost the edge of the cliff, and there on the brown coarse turf stood
out a large ring of grass, so lush and rich and green that there must
surely have been some hidden spring which fed it, or the fairies must
indeed have been at work.
“It keeps green like that ’cause the fairies dance there,” said Aaron,
with pride and awe.
Loveday jumped carefully over the green ring and stood in the centre.
“I expect they’d be angry if I stepped on it—wouldn’t they?” she
asked.
They both spoke softly, as though half afraid of disturbing or offending
the “little people.” Aaron jumped over too and joined her, and both sat
down in the middle of the ring and tried to picture the wonderful
scenes that took place there at night.
“I wonder where they live by day, and which way they come here,”
she asked, looking about her eagerly.
“I reckon they come every way,” said Aaron. “Some live in the flowers
and things, and some in caves and shells, I believe.”
“Do you think the piskies come too, and the buccas, and all?”
Aaron shook his head.
“I reckon those that have got to work don’t get no time for dancing.”
“I think I like the piskies the best,” said Loveday thoughtfully; “but, of
course, I love them all!” she added hastily, in a louder voice, for she
did not want to hurt any one’s feelings, and fairies were very easily
offended, she had heard. “Of course, I love them all; but I do love the

piskies very much, ’cause they work and play too; they come and do
people’s work for them and look after them, and then they dance, and
are such jolly little things.”
“They take care of my daddy,” said Aaron gravely. “Sometimes he’s got
to be out to sea all night, fishing, and it is dark, and the wind blowing,
and the rain coming down like anything.”
“My daddy has got to be out all night too, very often,” chimed in
Loveday, not to be outdone in importance by Aaron, “and he’s got to
drive all through the thunder and lightning and snow, and sometimes
it is so slippery Betty can’t hardly walk, but daddy’s got to go ’cause
somebody is ill.”
“But he doesn’t have to go on the sea,” said Aaron, “and p’r’aps be
drowned.”
“He has to drive, and horses tumble down, and run away, and wheels
come off and all sorts of things,” said Loveday, not to be outdone.
“But there are sharks and whales and—and torpedoes at sea,” went
on Aaron; but Loveday pretended not to hear him; and suddenly it
occurred to him that, if he aggravated her too much, she might begin
to call him “Adolphus” again; so he hurriedly changed the
conversation.
“I wish I could see some piskies at work—don’t you?” said Aaron.
“Oh yes!” sighed Loveday. “Do you think we could if we stayed up till
twelve o’clock one night?”
“I don’t know; I never heard of anybody hereabouts seeing them.
Perhaps they don’t come to these parts now.”
“I don’t think they do, or they would tidy Mr. Winter’s garden for him
and weed his path. It is very untidy, isn’t it? It looks just like a place
no one lives in.”
Aaron nodded; he had never seen it in any other condition, so was not
so much impressed as was Loveday.
“I wish I could make it nice for him. I’d like to make it look so nice—all
in one night—that when he came out he’d be—oh! ever so s’prised,

and he’d wonder and wonder who had done it, and he’d say: ‘Why, a
fairy must have been here at work.’ That’s what father and mother say
sometimes.”
Aaron looked at her with interest. He liked to hear her stories of her
home, and what she did there. Some of them were very wonderful.
But Loveday had no stories to tell that afternoon; she was very
thoughtful and quiet, and sat for quite a long time without speaking.
Aaron began at last to grow tired of staying still, and was just about
to get up, when she suddenly turned to him, all excitement:
“I’ve been thinking, and I’ve thought of—oh, ever such a nice plan.
Let’s play that we are piskies, and come up in the night and tidy Mr.
Winter’s garden for him, and make him think it is a fairy that has done
it, and—and then we’d come again, and he’d think the fairies had
been again. Shall we, Aaron? Oh, do say yes; and it will be a secret,
and nobody must ever know, and everybody will wonder—and oh, it
will be simply, simply splendid.”
Aaron listened eagerly, quite carried away by her enthusiasm.
Loveday, with her ideas, her wild plans, and strange thoughts, was a
constant wonder to him, and where she led he followed—if he could.
“Won’t all the folks be wondering and talking when it gets about?” he
cried excitedly, “and won’t it be funny to be listening to them, and we
knowing all the time all ’bout it! Oh, it’ll be grand!”
For quite a long while they sat and discussed their plans delightedly,
and of course there were a great many plans to be made. Aaron it
was who first saw difficulties in the way of carrying them out.
“But how’re we going to get out in the night?” he cried. “Mother and
father would hear us. ’Twould be dark, too, and if we was to slip and
fall climbing up the cliff, we’d be killed as dead as—as dead as
pilchards.”
“Pilchards don’t fall down cliffs,” said Loveday scornfully.
But she was obliged to admit that there were difficulties which would
not be very easy to get over, and they walked about with very

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