top till it had gone twenty
yards out into the stubble towards the straw-rick. Bevis laughed and
shouted, though a little disappointed that it had not smashed the
waggon, or at least jumped over it. Then, waving his hat, away he went
again, now picking up a flint to fling as far down as he could, now
kicking over a white round puff ball--always up, up, till he grew hot,
and his breath came in quick deep pants.

But still as determined as ever, he pushed on, and presently stood on
the summit, on the edge of the fosse. He looked down; the waggon seemed
under his feet; the plain, the hills beyond, the blue distant valley on
one side, on the other the ridge he had mounted stretched away, and
beyond it still more ridges, till he could see no further. He went into
the fosse, and there it seemed so pleasant that he sat down, and in a
minute lay extended at full length in his favourite position, looking up
at the sky. It was much more blue than he had ever seen it before, and
it seemed only just over his head; the grasshoppers called in the grass
at his side, and he could hear a lark sing, singing far away, but on a
level with him. First he thought he would talk to the grasshopper, or
call to one of the swallows, but he had now got over the effort of
climbing, and he could not sit still.

Up he jumped, ran up the rampart, and then down again into the fosse. He
liked the trench best, and ran along it in the hollow, picking up stray
flints and throwing them as far as he could. The trench wound round the
hill, and presently when he saw a low hawthorn-bush just outside the
broad green ditch, and scrambled up to it, the waggon was gone and the
plain, for he had reached the other side of the camp. There the top of
the hill was level and broad: a beautiful place for a walk.

Bevis went a little way out upon it, and the turf was so soft, and
seemed to push up his foot so, that he must go on, and when he had got a
little farther, he heard another grasshopper, and thought he would run
and catch him; but the grasshopper, who had heard of his tricks, stopped
singing, and hid in a bunch, so that Bevis could not see him.

Next he saw a little round hill--a curious little hill--not very much
higher than his own head, green with grass and smooth. This curious
little hill greatly pleased him; he would have liked to have had it
carried down into his garden at home; he ran up on the top of it, and
shouted at the sun, and danced round on the tu