So Tom went down ; and all the while he never saw the Irishwoman going down behind him . CHAPTER II `` And is there care in heaven ? and is there love In heavenly spirits to these creatures base That may compassion of their evils move ? There is : - else much more wretched were the case Of men than beasts : But oh ! the exceeding grace Of Highest God that loves His creatures so , And all His works with mercy doth embrace , That blessed Angels He sends to and fro , To serve to wicked man , to serve His wicked foe ! '' SPENSER . A mile off , and a thousand feet down . So Tom found it ; though it seemed as if he could have chucked a pebble on to the back of the woman in the red petticoat who was weeding in the garden , or even across the dale to the rocks beyond . For the bottom of the valley was just one field broad , and on the other side ran the stream ; and above it , gray crag , gray down , gray stair , gray moor walled up to heaven . A quiet , silent , rich , happy place ; a narrow crack cut deep into the earth ; so deep , and so out of the way , that the bad bogies can hardly find it out . The name of the place is Vendale ; and if you want to see it for yourself , you must go up into the High Craven , and search from Bolland Forest north by Ingleborough , to the Nine Standards and Cross Fell ; and if you have not found it , you must turn south , and search the Lake Mountains , down to Scaw Fell and the sea ; and then , if you have not found it , you must go northward again by merry Carlisle , and search the Cheviots all across , from Annan Water to Berwick Law ; and then , whether you have found Vendale or not , you will have found such a country , and such a people , as ought to make you proud of being a British boy . So Tom went to go down ; and first he went down three hundred feet of steep heather , mixed up with loose brown grindstone , as rough as a file ; which was not pleasant to his poor little heels , as he came bump , stump , jump , down the steep . And still he thought he could throw a stone into the garden . Then he went down three hundred feet of lime-stone terraces , one below the other , as straight as if a carpenter had ruled them with his ruler and then cut them out with his chisel . There was no heath there , but - First , a little grass slope , covered with the prettiest flowers , rockrose and saxifrage , and thyme and basil , and all sorts of sweet herbs . Then bump down a two-foot step of limestone . Then another bit of grass and flowers . Then bump down a one-foot step . Then another bit of grass and flowers for fifty yards , as steep as the house-roof , where he had to slide down on his dear little tail . Then another step of stone , ten feet high ; and there he had to stop himself , and crawl along the edge to find a crack ; for if he had rolled over , he would have rolled right into the old woman 's garden , and frightened her out of her wits .
Then , when he had found a dark narrow crack , full XXXXX green-stalked fern , such as hangs in the basket in the drawing-room , and had crawled down through it , with knees and elbows , as he would down a chimney , there was another grass slope , and another step , and so on , till -- oh , dear me !
above across behind down for from if in into of