27/28 I wish that I had a friend--" He fell into a day-dream, lapped there in warm purple waves, hearing the bees' interminable murmur. He faced, across a narrow vale, an abrupt, curiously shaped hill, dark with outstanding granite and with fir-trees. Where at the eastern end it broke away, where at its base the vale widened, shone among the lively green of elms turrets and chimneys of a large house. "Black Hill--Black Hill--Black Hill...." A youth of about his own age came up the path from the vale. Then, near at hand, the head rose above the brow of the ridge. |