And at the end of the path what do you think they found?
Why, a chattering sparkling river, running along over hundreds and thousands of brown and green pebbles, so fast that it seemed to be trying to catch the birds as they skimmed across it.

The children had never seen a river like this before, where you could see right to the very bottom, and count the stones there if you liked, and which behaved like a river at play, scrambling and dancing and rushing along as if it were out for a holiday, like the children themselves.
"What do you think of that for a river, children ?" said Mr.Norton.
"Very early this morning, when you little sleepyheads were in bed, I got up and came down here, and had my bath over there, look--in that nice brown pool under the tree." "Oh, father!" cried both children, dancing round him.

"Let us have our baths in the river too.

Do ask Nana--do, father! We can have our bathing things on that we had at the sea, and you can come too and teach us to swim." "Well, just once perhaps, if mother says yes, and it's very warm weather, and you get up very _very_ early.

But you won't like it quite as much as you think.