Another half-mile and they had reached the bourne of their expedition.

The narrow track through the gorse and fern widened suddenly into a lane, a lane with very high, unmortared walls, over which grew a variety of bramble with a particularly luscious fruit.

Every connoisseur of blackberries knows what a difference there is between the little hard seedy ones that commonly flourish in the hedges and the big juicy ones with the larger leaves.

Nature had been prodigal here, and a bounteous harvest hung within easy reach.
"They are as big as mulberries--and oh, such heaps and heaps!" exclaimed Addie ecstatically.

"No, Merle, you wretch, this is my branch! Don't poach, you wretch! Go farther on, can't you!" "I wish we could send the jam to the hospital when it's made," sighed Merle.
The party spread itself out; some of the girls climbed to the top of the wall, so that they could reach what grew on the sunnier side, and a few skirted round over a gate into a field, where a ruined cottage was also covered with brambles.