THE NORTIICOFPT LILIES.

awoke, and the place looked dreary, certainly; but
the two girls set to work with willing hearts and
hands, and when evening closed in the house began
to wear a look of home. The rain lasted three days,
and Gertrude was inclined to ask if it always rained;
but papa spoke hopefully, and Saturday morning
dawned fair and bright, and Mrs. Layton and the
children went with Mr. Layton on a voyage of dis-
covery.
 The Rectory was a good house, but quite new, and
therefore, to a certain extent, wanting in beauty, for
the walls were bare, and the shrubs in the garden were
mostly young. It faced south, and looked over-not
quite a dead level-but something like it. There were
a few small trees scattered here and there in the
hedgerows, and quite in the distance, making a deter-
mined grey mark against the sky, were the towers of
the cathedral..
 "C There is Lincoln," said Mr. Layton.
 "Oh, papa !" said Effie. It is eighteen miles off.
How can we see it ? We are quite on level ground."
 But it is not; and have you forgotten, Effie,"
said her father reverently, a city that is set on a hill
cannot be hid."
 Well, I don't mind the flat ground so much, if
we can only see it!" exclaimed Gertrude, "but I don't
think this is the best view," and she was right.
 To the left of the house was a wood of larches and
oaks, which bent round so that it nearly enclosed the
back as well. This wood stretched six or seven miles
eastward, and was for the most part on slightly rising
ground. But quite in the north, and stretching far
out into the west, to Gertrude's unbounded delight
were hills-real, rough, rugged hills, with the sunlight
making broad patches of light and shade on them;