"let us hurry on and try to find the road," said winona, who was rather frightened at her own temerity, and had a nervous apprehension lest a guard or a signalman or some other railway official might even now be in pursuit and arrest them on a charge of breaking the law.
after crossing a field they struck a path which led them eventually into a by-lane.
"i know where we are," affirmed garnet. "i bicycled this way once. monkend woods are in that direction, and if we turn to the left and through this village we shall get there sooner than the others, i believe, and be waiting for them when they arrive. their train won't have reached powerscroft yet."
"we'd better step out all the same," urged winona.
fortunately garnet possessed the bump of locality. her recollection of the district was correct, and after a brisk walk of about a mile they found themselves in the high road close to the wood, and sat down on a wall to wait. their fast train and short cut had given them an advantage: it was nearly half an hour before they spied the rest of the party strolling leisurely up the hill with baskets and vasculums. the surprise of the league at seeing them was immense, and naturally there were many in[pg 97]quiries as to how they had thus stolen a march upon their friends.
"oh, we came in an aëroplane!" said garnet jauntily. "it just dropped us in the field over there. very pleasant run, though a little chilly in the clouds!"
she was obliged to own up, however, in answer to miss lever's inquiries, give a precise account of their adventure, and cry "peccavi."
"of course dollikins had to be orthodox and preach a short sermon," she confided afterwards to winona, "but i'm sure she'd have done the same thing herself in the circumstances. i could see admiration in her eye, although she talked about running risks and the possibility of broken necks."
miss lever, otherwise dollikins, from the fact that her christian name was dorothy, held high favor among the girls. she was brisk and jolly, decidedly athletic, and a first-rate leader of outdoor expeditions. she had called at the gamekeeper's cottage en route and shown the letter of permission from the owner of the property, so that the party was able to explore the wood with a clear conscience, despite the trespass notice nailed on to the gate. and what a delightful wood it was! to enter it was like stepping into one of grimm's fairy tales. an avenue of splendid pines reared their dark boughs against a russet background of beeches; everywhere the leaves seemed to have donned their brightest and gayest tints, as if bidding a last good-by before they fell from the trees. the undergrowth was gorgeous: bramble, elder, honeysuckle, briony,[pg 98] rowan, and alder vied with one another in the vividness of their crimson and orange, while the bracken was a sea of pale gold. there were all sorts of delightful things to be found—acorns lay so plentifully in the pathway that the girls could not help scrunching them underfoot. a few were already sending out tiny shoots in anticipation of spring, and these were carefully saved to take home and grow in bottles. a stream ran through the wood, its banks almost completely covered with vivid green mosses, in sheets so thick and compact that a slight pull would raise a yard at a time. some resembled tufted tassels, some the most delicate ferns, and others showed the split cups of their seed-vessels like pixie goblets. annie hardy, whose experienced eyes were on the look-out for certain botanical treasures reported to grow at monkend, was searching among the dead twigs under the hazel bushes, and was rewarded by finding a clump of the curious little birds-nest fungus with its seeds packed like tiny eggs inside. some orange elf-cups, a bright red toadstool or two, and a few of the larger purple varieties that had lingered on from october made quite a creditable fungus record for the league, and specimens of wild flowers were also secured, a belated foxglove or two, a clump of ragwort, some blue harebells, campion, herb-robert, buttercup, yarrow, thistle, and actually a strawberry blossom. the leaders had brought note-books and wrote down each find as reported by the members, taking the specimens for miss lever to verify if there were any doubt as to identification. animal[pg 99] and bird life was not absent. shy bunnies whisked away, showing a dab of white tail as they dived under the bracken; a splendid squirrel ran across the path and darted up an oak tree, a wood-pigeon whirred from a pine top, a great woodpecker, scared by their approach, started from the bushes and flew past them so near that they could see the green flash of its wings and the red markings on its head, while a whole fluttering flight of long-tailed tits were flitting like a troop of fairies round the hole of a lichen-covered beech.
miss lever was as enthusiastic as the girls; she climbed over fallen tree trunks, grubbed among dead leaves, jumped the brook and scaled fences with delightful energy. it was she who pointed out the heron sailing overhead, and noticed the gold-crested wren's nest hanging under the branch of a fir, a little battered with autumn rain, and too high, alas! to be taken, but a most interesting item to go down in the note-books. the girls could hardly be persuaded to tear themselves away from the glory of the woods, and would have spent the whole time there, but miss lever had other plans.
"come along! we've scared the pheasants quite enough," she declared. "my mind is set on fossils, and if we don't go on to copplestones at once we shall be caught in the dark, or miss our tea or our train or something equally disagreeable."
the quarry was only half a mile away, and it proved as interesting as the wood. being saturday afternoon the men were not working, so they had the place to themselves, and wandered about exam[pg 100]ining heaps of shale, and tapping likely-looking stones with their hammers. garnet and winona knew nothing of geology, so they listened with due meekness while the instructed few discoursed learnedly on palæozoic rocks, stratified conglomerates and quartzites. they rejoiced with miss lever, however, when she secured a fairly intact belemnite. it was the only good find they had, though some of the girls got broken bits of fossil shells.
"the fact is one needs a whole day to hunt about in this quarry, and my watch tells me we ought to be going," said miss lever. "who feels inclined for tea?"
everybody felt very much disposed, so the procession started off cheerfully for the farm close by, and the nature-lovers were soon hard at work consuming platefuls of bread and butter, jars of jam, and piles of plum cake.
"sixteen varieties of wild flowers, seven various specimens of fungi, nine different sorts of berries, twelve species of birds noticed, also rabbits and squirrel, one bird's nest and one perfect fossil—not a bad record for an autumn foray!" said linda, proudly consulting her note-book.
"especially when you remember we're well on in november!" added annie. "it will be something to enter in the league minutes book."
"i'm afraid it's the last ramble we shall get this year," said miss lever, "but i've one or two nice little schemes on hand for the spring, so the league must look forward to next april. will any one[pg 101] have any more tea? then please make a move, for it's time we were starting."
"good old dollikins!" murmured linda as the girls put on their coats. "she's a1 at a foray. got something ripping for next season in her head. i can tell by the twinkle in her eye. she'll ruminate over it all winter, and drop it on us as a surprise some day. oh, thunder! yes, we ought to be starting! come along, you slackers, do you want to be left standing on the platform with a couple of hours to wait for the next train? then sprint as hard as you can!"
