was tiresome for it to bleed."

"Nothing like being prepared for emergencies," said Uncle Jack, taking
out his pocket-book, and from one of the pockets a piece of
sticking-plaster and a pair of scissors. "I'm always cutting or
pinching my fingers. Wonder whether we could have stuck Cob's head on
again if it had been cut off?"

I opined not as I submitted to the rough surgery that went on, and then
refusing absolutely to be treated as a sick person, and go back, I
tramped on by them, mile after mile, to see something of the fine open
country out to the west of the town before we settled down to work.

We were astonished, for as we got away from the smoky pit in which
Arrowfield lay, we found, in following the bank of the rivulet that
supplied our works, that the country was lovely and romantic too. Hill,
dale, and ravine were all about us, rippling stream, hanging wood, grove
and garden, with a thousand pretty views in every direction, as we
climbed on to the higher ground, till at last cultivation seemed to have
been left behind, and we were where the hills towered up with ragged
stony tops, and their slopes all purple heather, heath, and moss.

"Look, look!" I cried, as I saw a covey of birds skim by; "partridges!"

"No," said Uncle Bob, watching where they dropped; "not partridges, my
lad--grouse."

"What, here!" I said; "and so near the town."

"Near! Why we are seven or eight miles away."

"But I thought grouse were Scotch birds."

"They are birds of the moors," said Uncle Bob; "and here you have them
stretching for miles all over the hills. This is about as wild a bit of
country as you could see. Why, the country people here call those hills
mountains."

"But are they mountains?" I said; "they don't look very high."

"Higher than you think, my lad, with precipice and ravine. Why, look--
you can see the top of that one is among the clouds."

"I should have thought it was a mist resting upon it."

"Well, what is the difference?" said Uncle Bob, smiling.

Just then we reached a spot where a stream crossed the road, and the
sight of the rippling water, clear as crystal, took our attention from
the hills and vales that spread around. My first idea was to run down
to the edge of the stream, which was so dotted with great stones that I
was soon quite in the middle, looking after the shadowy shapes that I
had seen dart away.

My uncles followed me, and we forgot all about the work and troubles