"Then why don't you walk around it, instead of climbing?" questioned
Gwen.

"Smarty!" Max said, at he same time looking very unpleasant.

"Oh, I don't care," Gwen hastened to say. "I like to climb. Come on!"

It did not look like much of a hill, but it proved to be hard to
climb, for its sides were steep, and covered with wiry grass.

The sun was hot, and long before reaching the top, Gwen wished that
she had not started at all.

Twice she stopped to take short pieces of stems or dry twigs from her
slippers, and often the thorny branches of the low bushes scratched
her bare arms.

Her sleeves were short, and thus her arms were unprotected. Max's arms
were covered by his jacket sleeves.

"What a fuss you make over a little scratch!" he said, sharply.

"I'm _not_ fussing over _a_ scratch!" snapped Gwen. "I'm fussing over
'bout a hundred scratches!"

"Oh,--o--o!" Max drawled, as if he doubted the number.

"Well, look!" cried Gwen, holding her little arms red with scratches.

"Too bad," Max said, and Gwen, surprised, and pleased, followed him,
as he made his way just ahead of her, holding back the bushes.

"Oh, Max, you're good," she said, and Max blushed at her praise. He
thought himself exceedingly good, but he was delighted that Gwen
thought so.

"This hill didn't look so very high, when we stood on the beach and
looked back at it," said Gwen.

"N-no," admitted Max, "but all the same I'm glad we started early, and
we'll reach the top 'fore long. Then we'll see what's on the other
side, and when we climb down, we can just run around on the level
ground, and tell the folks where we've been, and what a climb we
had!"

"Oh, yes," agreed Gwen, and once more they pushed forward, and up
toward the summit, that seemed, no matter how long they climbed, to be
not the least bit nearer.

For a time they climbed in silence, when, all at once, Gwen tripped
over a loose root, and promptly sat down.

"I'll have to rest a few minutes," she said.

"I'll sit down because you do," Max said. He would not say that he,
too, was tired.

He was not contented long to sit resting, and soon the two were once
more trudging up the steep incline, Max leading the way, and Gwen,
following close behind him.

"We're 'most to the top," he said, at last, to which Gwen replied:

"I don't believe it! The more we climb, the farther away it seems,
and I do believe that horrid old hilltop moves away as fast as it sees
us coming!"