Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/178

162 suffered especially from combining conflicting substances at the same meal, thought that she was never likely to suffer.

“Now, to the Fort,” cried Nora, “if you ’ve eaten enough. I hope that there are some seats there. I’m beginning to feel just a little stiff from climbing up and  down those steep streets.”

“Well, you ’ve got to climb one more small mountain to get to the Fort, and then you can rest as long as you  wish.”

“We want time for St. Michael’s Church,” said Julia.

“Oh, yes, but everything else, even the Burying Hill, we can leave until some other day, if there isn’t time  to-day for it.”

Now the girls had all seen Fort Sewall from the water side, as its old walls and green slopes make it one of the  notable objects along the shore of Marblehead Harbor. It is built on a point that commands the entrance to the  harbor, and as long ago as 1742 the General Court saw the  advantage of fortifying this point, and voted a certain  sum of money for the purpose. It was first built to protect the people of Marblehead against French cruisers. But in all our other wars, it has been garrisoned. To-day it is dismantled, its ramparts have become a park, and  seats are placed here and there for those who wish to  linger on its height to enjoy the view. Almost directly across is the Great Neck, with the lighthouse on the Point,  the handsome cottages on the higher land, with the yacht  clubs, and still other cottages nearer the water’s edge. Then more to the left, and farther out toward sea, Lowell