tand.

While Bob had been putting forth these efforts, the ass bad been
flying along at an undiminished rate of speed, and the country
swept past him on either side. He passed long lines of trees by
the roadside, he saw field after field flit by, and the distant
hills went slowly along out of the line of his vision. Hitherto he
had met with no one at all along the road, nor had he seen any
cattle of any kind. His efforts to arrest the ass had been fruitless,
and he gave them up, and looked forward for some opportunity to
get assistance. He remembered that the road had no towns or inns
between Paestum and Salerno, and he began to fear that he would be
carried all the way to the latter place before he could stop.

His fears, however, were unfounded; for now an event occurred which
made him full of other thoughts. It was a sudden change in the
course of his flight. Thus far they had been going along the main
road. Now, however, they came to a place where a road led away on
the right, apparently to the mountains. Without the slightest pause
or hesitation, but with undiminished speed, and the headlong flight
of one familiar with the way, the ass turned from the main road,
and ran into this side road.

The anxiety and fear which Bob had thus far felt were trifling,
indeed, compared with the emotions that now seized upon him. Thus
far he had not felt altogether cut off from his friends. He knew
all the time that they were behind him, and that at the worst he
could not be carried farther than Salerno, and that they would come
up with him there, and thus they would all be reunited before dark.
But now he was suddenly carried off helplessly from the main road,
and in a moment seemed severed from his friends. Where was he going?
When would the ass stop?

Before him arose the mountainous country, not many miles away, the
declivities in some places slight and gradual, in other places
abrupt. Cultivated spots appeared here and there, and white villages,
and old castles. It was not, however, an inviting country, and the
nearer he drew to it the less he liked it. The road here was not
so broad, and smooth, and easy as the one he had just left, but
was narrow and rough. At length he reached the skirts of the
mountains, and the road now began to ascend. After a while it grew
somewhat steeper, and decidedly rougher. And now Bob found, to his
immense relief, that the pace was at last beginning to tell upon
the tough sinews of the fie