r. The exciting part of it was that each feature concealed the
ones above it. At the top of a rise would be an outcropping of
strangely colored rock, invisible from below. Beyond the outcropping,
a small stand of aspens would quiver in the breeze, their quicksilver
leaves hiding a tiny meadow on the slope behind. And when the meadow
had been discovered, there would be a something else beyond. He was a
real explorer now. When he got to the top, he thought, he would build
a little tower of stones, the way explorers always do.

But at the end of two hours' steady climbing, he was ready to admit
that he would never reach the peak that day. It still rose above his
head, seeming as far distant as ever. But he did not care now. It had
been a glorious climb, and the distance he had already covered was a
considerable one. He looked back. The town looked like a model of a
town, with little toy houses and different-colored roofs among the
trees that made a darker patch on the pattern of the valley floor. The
mountains on the other side of the valley seemed like blue clouds
stretching out over the edge of the world. Even the peak could not
give him a better view than this.

David gazed up the face of a scarp which rose like a cliff above
him--a smooth, bare wall of rock that had halted his climb. Halfway
up the scarp was a dark horizontal line of bushes, something like a
hedge. Apparently there was a ledge or shelf there, and he decided to
climb up to it before he returned home. To scale the rock face itself
was impossible, however: there were no hand or foot holds. So he
turned and made his way through the grass until he reached the end of
the bare stone. Then he started upward again. It was hard work. Vines
clutched at his feet, and the close-set bushes seemed unwilling to let
him pass. He had one nasty slip, which might have been his last if he
had not grabbed a tough clump of weeds at the crucial instant.

But, oh! it was worth it. He felt like shouting when at last he
reached the ledge. Truly it was an enchanted place! It was a long,
level strip of ground, several yards wide, carpeted with short grass
and dandelions. Bushes grew along most of the outer edge. The inner
edge was bounded by a second scarp--a wall of red stone with sparkling
points of light imbedded in its smooth surface.

David threw himself on the grass and rolled in it. It was warm and
soft and sweet-smelling; it soothed away the hurt of his aching
muscles