om the foot of that hill over whose summit lay the
entrance to the country which they had set out to seek.

He slid cautiously off the shelf, helped Joan to put on her frock and
tie her shawl round her again; then they opened the door, stole down the
steps, and there they paused in dismay. The caravan had come to a
standstill, and been drawn up on the edge of a stretch of dreary common;
the horses were unyoked, and grazing near by. Along the further
boundary of the common wound a broad, level highway, bordered by a wide
footpath; and in the distance, from the valley front, rose the towers,
spires, and smoking chimneys of a large-sized town. But Firgrove, Hill
Difficulty, and the Happy Land all lay behind--far, far away!

CHAPTER X.

THE HAPPY LAND.

"Heaven lies about us in our infancy."

WORDSWORTH.

"To be good is to be happy; angels
Are happier than men because they're better."

ROWE.

"Now, please, Mrs. Joe, will you show Joan and me the nearest way to the
place where you found us?" asked Darby in all good faith when they had
finished their breakfast. It had been a most unusual one for them, and
not much of a treat: the bread was dry, the bacon strong smelling, the
bitter coffee guiltless of either cream or milk, and poor Joan made many
a wry face in her efforts to get it down.

"Time enough, time enough," answered Mrs. Joe cheerily, yet with a
shamefaced look. "What's yer hurry? Are you so keen to leave us, eh?"
she asked, fixing her bold, smiling eyes on the earnest countenance of
the little lad.

"No--that is--ah--not 'zactly," stammered Darby, feeling himself in a
fix between truth and politeness. "We didn't come on a visit, you know;
we came only for the night. And you promised to let us go this morning
after breakfast, and to show us the way."

Molly only laughed, looking this way and that; but Joe began roughly,--

"Look ee here now, young Hop-o'-my-thumb, we've had enough o' this
humbug. Ye're both here, an' here ye're goin' to stay till I've done wi'
ye. Do you heed?" he shouted, gripping Darby by the shoulder and giving
him a hearty shake, while the dwarf's sunken eyes flashed with an angry
gleam.

Joan began to whimper softly into the folds of her tartan shawl, but
Darby looked from the black-browed woman to the coarse, red-haired man
with stern, reproachful eyes.

"You promised--_she_ promised," he said brav