CHAPTER VII.
POOR SNIP.
The middle weeks of August were come--sunny, sultry weeks; and from the brow of the hill, all the vast plain lying westward for many miles looked golden with the corn ripening for harvest.

The oats in the little field had already been reaped; and the fruit in the garden, gathered and sold by Martha, had brought in a few shillings, which were carefully hoarded up to buy winter clothing.

It was now the time of the yearly gathering of bilberries on the hills; and tribes of women and children ascended to the tableland from all the villages round.

It was the pleasantest work of the year; and Martha, who had never missed the bilberry season since she could remember, was not likely to miss it now.

Even little Nan could help to pick the berries, and she and Martha were out on the hillsides all the livelong summer day.