"Hope for the best, and be prepared for the worst," had been the motto of our journey. So when we rose to one of the wettest mornings that ever came out of the sky, there was a certain satisfaction in being prepared for it.  
"We must have a fire, that is certain," was our first decision. This entailed¹ the abolition² of our beautiful decorations—our sea-holly and ferns; also some anxious looks from our handmaiden. Apparently³ no fire, had been lit in this rather despised room for many months—years perhaps—and the chimney rather resented being used. A few agonised down-puffs greatly interfered⁴ with the comfort of the breakfast table, and an insane attempt to open the windows made matters worse.
 
Which was most preferable—to be stifled⁵ or deluged⁶? We were just considering the question, when the chimney took a new and kinder thought, or the wind took a turn—it seemed to blow alternately from every quarter, and then from all quarters at once—the smoke went up straight, the room grew warm and bright, with the cosy⁷ peace of the first fire of the season. Existence became once more endurable, nay⁸, pleasant.
 
"We shall survive, spite of the rain!" And we began to laugh over our lost day which we had meant to begin by bathing in Housel Cove⁹; truly, just to stand outside the door would give an admirable douche bath in three minutes. "But how nice it is to be inside, with a roof over our heads, and no necessity for travelling. Fancy the unfortunate tourists who have fixed¹⁰ on to-day for visiting the Lizard¹¹!" (Charles had told us that Monday was a favourite day for excursions.) "Fancy anybody being obliged to go out such weather as this!"
 
 
And in our deep pity for our fellow-creatures we forgot to pity ourselves.
 
Nor was there much pity needed; we had provided against emergencies, with a good store of needlework and knitting, anything that would pack in small compass, also a stock of unquestionably "light" literature—paper-covered, double-columned, sixpenny volumes, inclosing an amount of enjoyment¹² which those only can understand who are true lovers of Walter Scott. We had enough of him to last for a week of wet days. And we had a one-volume Tennyson, all complete, and a "Morte d'Arthur"—Sir Thomas Malory's. On this literary provender¹³ we felt that as yet we should not starve.
 
Also, some little fingers having a trifling¹⁴ turn for art, brought out triumphantly¹⁵ a colour-box, pencils, and pictures. And the wall-paper being one of the very ugliest that ever eye beheld¹⁶, we sought and obtained permission to adorn¹⁷ it with these, our chefs-d'œuvre, pasted at regular intervals¹⁸. Where we hope they still remain, for the edification of succeeding lodgers¹⁹.
 
We read the "Idylls of the King" all through, finishing with "The Passing of Arthur," where the "bold Sir Bedivere" threw Excalibur into the mere—which is supposed to be Dozmare Pool. Here King Arthur's faithful lover was so melted—for the hundredth time—by the pathos²⁰ of the story, and by many old associations, that the younger and more practical minds grew scornful, and declared that probably King Arthur had never existed at all—or if he had, was nothing but a rough barbarian²¹, unlike even the hero of Sir Thomas Malory, and far more unlike the noble modern gentleman of Tennyson's verse. Maybe: and yet, seeing that
 
"'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all,"
may it not be better to have believed in an impossible ideal man, than to accept contentedly²² a low ideal, and worship blindly the worldly, the mean, or the base?
 
This topic furnished matter for so much hot argument, that, besides doing a quantity of needlework, we succeeded in making our one wet day by no means the least amusing of our seventeen days in Cornwall.
 
Hour after hour we watched the rain—an even down-pour. In the midst of it we heard a rumour²³ that Charles had been seen about the town, and soon after he appeared at the door, hat in hand, soaked but smiling, to inquire for and sympathise with his ladies. Yes, he had brought a party to the Lizard that day!—unfortunate souls (or bodies), for there could not have been a dry thread left on them! We gathered closer round our cosy fire; ate our simple dinner with keen enjoyment, and agreed that after all we had much to be thankful for.
 
 
In the afternoon the storm abated²⁴ a little, and we thought we would seize the chance of doing some shopping, if there was a shop in Lizard Town. So we walked—I ought rather to say waded²⁵, for the road was literally²⁶ swimming—meeting not one living creature, except a family of young ducks, who, I need scarcely say, were enjoying supreme²⁷ felicity.
 
"Yes, ladies, this is the sort of weather we have pretty well all winter. Very little frost or snow, but rain and storm, and plenty of it. Also fogs; I've heard there's nothing anywhere like the fogs at the Lizard."
 
So said the woman at the post-office, which, except the serpentine²⁸ shops, seemed to be the one emporium of commerce in the place. There we could get all we wanted, and a good deal that we were very thankful we did not want, of eatables, drinkables, and wearables. Also ornaments²⁹, china vases, &c., of a kind that would have driven frantic³⁰ any person of æsthetic tastes. Among them an active young Cornishman of about a year old was meandering³¹ aimlessly, or with aims equally destructive to himself and the community. He all but succeeded in bringing down a row of plates upon his devoted³² head, and then tied himself up, one fat finger after another, in a ball of twine³³, upon which he began to howl violently.
 
"He's a regular little trial," said the young mother proudly. "He's only sixteen months old, and yet he's up to all sorts of mischief³⁴. I don't know what in the world I shall do with he, presently. Naughty boy!" with a delighted scowl³⁵.
 
"Not naughty, only active," suggested another maternal³⁶ spirit, and pleaded that the young jackanapes should be found something to do that was not mischief, but yet would occupy his energies, and fill his mind. At which, the bright bold face looked up as if he had understood it all—an absolutely fearless face, brimming with fun, and shrewdness too. Who knows? The "regular little trial" may grow into a valuable member of society—fisherman, sailor, coastguardman—daring and doing heroic deeds; perhaps saving many a life on nights such as last night, which had taught us what Cornish coast-life was all winter through.
 
The storm was now gradually abating³⁷; the wind had lulled³⁸ entirely³⁹, the rain had ceased, and by sunset a broad yellow streak⁴⁰ all along the west implied that it might possibly be a fine day to-morrow.
 
But the lane was almost a river still, and the slippery altitudes of the "hedges" were anything but desirable. As the only possible place for a walk I ventured into a field where two or three cows cropped their supper of damp grass round one of those green hillocks seen in every Cornish pasture field—a manure⁴¹ heap planted with cabbages, which grow there with a luxuriance that turns ugliness into positive beauty. Very dreary⁴² everything was—the soaking grass, the leaden sky, the angry-looking sea, over which a rainy moon was just beginning to throw a faint glimmer⁴³; while shorewards one could just trace the outline of Lizard Point and the wheat-field behind it. Yesterday those fields had looked so sunshiny and fair, but to-night they were all dull and grey, with rows of black dots indicating the soppy, sodden⁴⁴ harvest sheaves.
 
Which reminded me that to-morrow was the harvest festival at Landewednack, when all the world and his wife was invited by shilling tickets to have tea in the rectory garden, and afterwards to assist at the evening thanksgiving service in the church.
 
"Thanksgiving! What for?" some poor farmer might well exclaim, especially on such a day as this. Some harvest festivals must occasionally seem a bitter mockery. Indeed, I doubt if the next generation will not be wise in taking our "Prayers for Rain," "Prayers for Fair Weather," clean out of the liturgy⁴⁵. Such conceited⁴⁶ intermeddling with the government of the world sounds to some ridiculous, to others actually profane⁴⁷. "Snow and hail, mists and vapours, wind and storm, fulfilling His Word." And it must be fulfilled, no matter at what cost to individuals or to nations. The laws of the universe must be carried out, even though the mystery of sorrow, like the still greater mystery of evil, remains⁴⁸ for ever unexplained. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
 
And how right is His right! How marvellously beautiful He can make this world! until we can hardly imagine anything more beautiful in the world everlasting⁴⁹. Ay, even after such a day as to-day, when the world seems hardly worth living in, yet we live on, live to wake up unto such a to-morrow—
 
But I must wait to speak of it in another page.