All else was silent . For old Mrs. Earth was still fast asleep ; and , like many pretty people , she looked still prettier asleep than awake . The great elm-trees in the gold-green meadows were fast asleep above , and the cows fast asleep beneath them ; nay , the few clouds which were about were fast asleep likewise , and so tired that they had lain down on the earth to rest , in long white flakes and bars , among the stems of the elm-trees , and along the tops of the alders by the stream , waiting for the sun to bid them rise and go about their day 's business in the clear blue overhead . On they went ; and Tom looked , and looked , for he never had been so far into the country before ; and longed to get over a gate , and pick buttercups , and look for birds ' nests in the hedge ; but Mr. Grimes was a man of business , and would not have heard of that . Soon they came up with a poor Irishwoman , trudging along with a bundle at her back . She had a gray shawl over her head , and a crimson madder petticoat ; so you may be sure she came from Galway . She had neither shoes nor stockings , and limped along as if she were tired and footsore ; but she was a very tall handsome woman , with bright gray eyes , and heavy black hair hanging about her cheeks . And she took Mr. Grimes ' fancy so much , that when he came alongside he called out to her : `` This is a hard road for a gradely foot like that . Will ye up , lass , and ride behind me ? '' But , perhaps , she did not admire Mr. Grimes ' look and voice ; for she answered quietly : `` No , thank you : I 'd sooner walk with your little lad here . '' `` You may please yourself , '' growled Grimes , and went on smoking . So she walked beside Tom , and talked to him , and asked him where he lived , and what he knew , and all about himself , till Tom thought he had never met such a pleasant-spoken woman . And she asked him , at last , whether he said his prayers ! and seemed sad when he told her that he knew no prayers to say . Then he asked her where she lived , and she said far away by the sea . And Tom asked her about the sea ; and she told him how it rolled and roared over the rocks in winter nights , and lay still in the bright summer days , for the children to bathe and play in it ; and many a story more , till Tom longed to go and see the sea , and bathe in it likewise . At last , at the bottom of a hill , they came to a spring ; not such a spring as you see here , which soaks up out of a white gravel in the bog , among red fly-catchers , and pink bottle-heath , and sweet white orchis ; nor such a one as you may see , too , here , which bubbles up under the warm sandbank in the hollow lane by the great tuft of lady ferns , and makes the sand dance reels at the bottom , day and night , all the year round ; not such a spring as either of those ; but a real North country limestone fountain , like one of those in Sicily or Greece , where the old heathen fancied the nymphs sat cooling themselves the hot summer 's day , while the shepherds peeped at them from behind the bushes . Out of a low cave of rock , at the foot of a limestone crag , the great fountain rose , quelling , and bubbling , and gurgling , so clear that you could not tell where the water ended and the air began ; and ran away under the road , a stream large enough to turn a mill ; among blue geranium , and golden globe-flower , and wild raspberry , and the bird-cherry with its tassels of snow . And there Grimes stopped , and looked ; and Tom looked too . Tom was wondering whether anything lived in that dark cave , and came out at night to fly in the meadows .
But Grimes was not wondering XXXXX all .
On about above along as at before beside into till