please her. It was strange that a guide, whose life
had been spent among the roughest of men, on the mountains, should know
better how to be polite than a boy who had been brought up tenderly in
the midst of refinement and elegance; but so it often is.

"How long does it take to go up the steep part?" asked Mrs. Gray.

"About an hour," said Philippe. "They stop two or three times on the
way, to rest the bearers, and change them."

"Then they change the bearers," said Mrs. Gray.

"Yes, madam," replied Philippe. "We take eight bearers to each chair,
and four of them carry it at a time; so we have two sets."

"I'm glad of that," said Rosie.

"And what do we see when we get to the top?" asked Mrs. Gray.

"We walk along over the sand and lava," replied Philippe, "until we come
to the edge of the crater, and then we look down."

"And do we see the fire coming out?" asked Rollo.

"Yes," said Philippe, "plenty of fire."

"And lava, and red-hot stones?" asked Josie.

"Yes," said Philippe, "all the time."

"I hope you don't go too near," said Mrs. Gray.

"No, madam," said Philippe; "we are careful not to go too near. There is
a mountain guide who goes up with the party from the Hermitage, and it
is his business to know all the time what the state of the mountain is,
and where it is safe to go. There are two craters now. One of them they
cannot go down into, for the sides have caved in all around, and formed
perpendicular cliffs. But at the other crater there is on one side a
slope of sand and slag, where people can go down, and walk over the lava
on the floor of the crater."

"Why, I should think they would sink into it," said Rosie.

"No," said Philippe; "the lava that lies spread out over the bottom of
the crater has cooled so as to be hard enough to walk upon, though you
can see that it is red hot in the cracks."

"I should not dare to walk over it," said Rosie.

"Ladies go down very often," said Philippe, "and there is no danger,
only the sulphurous smoke, if it happens to blow over upon you, is bad
to breathe."

After some further conversation with Philippe, and some consultation
with each other, the party formed the plan as follows: They were all to
go together in a carriage to the Hermitage. Then Philippe was to provide
chairs and bearers for Mrs. Gray and Rosie, to take them to the foot of
the cone, and animals, either mules or donkeys, for "the three
gentlemen," as Philippe called them. On arriving