VALLEY

22 RAINBOW VALLEYreferred to as "the old Bailey house."It had not beenoccupied for many years, but a grass-grown dyke surroundedit and inside was an ancient garden wherethe Ingleside children could find violets and daisies andJune lilies still blooming in season. For the rest, thegarden was overgrown with caraway that swayed andfoamed in the moonshine of summer eves like seas ofsilver.To the south lay the pond and beyond it the ripeneddistance lost itself in purple woods, save where, on ahigh hill, a solitary old gray homestead looked downon Glen and harbour. There was a certain wildwoodsiness and solitude about Rainbow Valley, inspite of its nearness to the village,which endeared itto the children of Ingleside.The valley was full of dear, friendly hollows andthe largest of these was their favourite stampingground. Here they were assembled on this particularevening. There was a grove of young spruces in thishollow, with a tiny, grassy glade in its heart, openingon the bank of the brook. By the brook grew a silverbirch tree, a young, incredibly straight thing whichWalter had named the "White Lady."In this glade,too, were the "Tree Lovers," as Walter called a spruceand maple which grew so closely together that theirboughs were inextricably intertwined. Jem had hungan old string of sleigh bells, given him by the Glenblacksmith, on the Tree Lovers, and every visitantbreeze called out sudden fairy tinkles from it.