4 Tassie and Button
　　Certainly Castle Hill was a very lonely place, for, after they had explored it, there seemed to beonly their cottage on it, Tassie’s tumble-down home, and a farm some way off, where they gottheir eggs and milk. The village lay in the valley below.
　　But although the great hill was almost empty of people, it was full of wildlife: birds for Jack¹,and animals of all kinds for Philip. Squirrels ran everywhere, rabbits popped up wherever theywalked, and red foxes slunk by, not seeming at all scared.
　　‘Golly! I wish I could get a baby fox, a little cub²!’ said Philip. ‘I’ve always wanted one. They’relike small and lively puppies, you know.’
　　Tassie was with them when he said this. She often joined up with them now, and was quiteinvaluable because she always knew the way home. It seemed very easy to get lost on the vast hill,but Tassie could always show them a short cut.
　　She was an odd girl. Sometimes she would not come near them but hovered³ about, some yardsoff, looking at Kiki with fascinated eyes. Sometimes she walked close to them, and listened totheir talk, though she never said very much herself.
　　She looked with admiration⁴ and envy on the simple clothes of the two girls. Sometimes she tookthe stuff they were made of between her fingers and felt it. She never wore anything but a raggedfrock that looked as if it had been made from a dirty sack. Her wild, curly hair was in a tangle⁵, andshe was always barefoot.
　　‘I don’t mind her being barefoot, but she’s rather dirty,’ said Lucy-Ann to Dinah. ‘I don’tbelieve she ever has a bath.’
　　‘Well, she’s probably not seen a bath in her life,’ said Dinah. ‘She looks awfully⁶ healthythough, doesn’t she? I’ve never seen anyone with such bright eyes and pink cheeks and whiteteeth. Yet I bet she never cleans her teeth.’
　　On enquiry, it was found that Tassie didn’t know what a bath was. Dinah took her into SpringCottage and showed her the big tin bath they all used. Her mother was there and looked at the wildgirl in

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