rises, and that there is a lovely view. It will be
rather a climb, but it isn't more than three-quarters of an hour from
here, and we have not walked all day."

Uncle thought it a good idea, and Rex was ready to start at once; but
Olive looked less pleased.

"Don't you want to come, Olive?" said Auntie. "Are you tired? You didn't
take a nap like the rest of us."

"I am a little tired," said Olive, which was true in one sense, though
not in another, for she was quite fit for a walk. It struck her that her
excuse was not quite an honest one, so she added, "If you don't mind, I
would rather stay about here. I don't mind being alone, and I have my
book. And I do so like the forest."

"Very well," said her uncle; "only don't lose yourself. She is perfectly
safe," he added, turning to her aunt; "there are neither wolves, nor
bears, nor robbers nowadays, in these peaceful forests."

So the three set off, leaving Olive to her own devices. She waited till
they were out of sight, then she made her preparations.

"I'd better take my purse," she said to herself, "in case I meet the
dwarfs. Auntie told me to be very polite, and perhaps they would like
some of these tiny pieces; they just look as if they were meant for
them." So she chose out a few one-pfennig copper coins, which are much
smaller than our farthings, and one or two silver pieces, worth about
twopence-halfpenny each, still smaller. Then she put in her pocket half
a slice of the brown bread they had had with their coffee, and arming
herself, more for appearance's-sake than anything else, with her parasol
and the book she had with her in her travelling bag, she set off on her
solitary ramble.

It was still hot--though the forest trees made a pleasant shade. Olive
walked some way, farther and farther, as far as she could make out, into
the heart of the forest, but in her inexperience she took no sort of
care to notice the way she went, or to make for herself any kind of
landmarks. She just wandered on and on, tempted first by some mysterious
little path, and then by another, her mind full of the idea of the
discoveries she was perhaps about to make. Now and then a squirrel
darted across from one tree to another, disappearing among the branches
almost before Olive could be sure she had seen it, or some wild wood
birds, less familiar to the little foreigner, would startle her with a
shrill, strange note. There were here and there lovely flowers growing
among the mos