won't it be a real bonny
sight, with the ships sailing on it. Then we'll go along till we get
into England, and any one'll tell us the way to London. This turning
seems the most like going straight, so we'll take it."

This knotty point decided, Elsie tripped along with no sort of
misgiving. Duncan was by no means so sure. He had received geography
lessons, in which he had been told how many hundred miles long Scotland
was, and he had a sort of dim suspicion that London must be farther off
than Elsie thought; but he did not feel much uneasiness.

After a while the road became rough and uneven, and at last it turned
sharp round in the wrong direction, but just beyond them the low wall
suddenly ended in a scattered heap of stony fragments, and the grass
stretched fresh and green away to the hills.

"Come on, Duncan!" Elsie cried, dragging him after her on to the grass.
"We'll be seeing the sea from that hill, I'll be bound!"

The hill was farther away than it looked, but they reached it after a
good sharp scamper. "And now we'll just be after eating a bit of
something before we go any farther," Elsie said, dropping down on the
grass, very hot and breathless.

"I s'pose there'll be shops by-and-by," Duncan said, "or a farm, where
we can get a drink of milk."

Elsie was thirsty, but she was not going to be daunted by such a small
inconvenience.

They began hopefully to climb the hill. As they mounted they began to
find it steep and tiring. After ten minutes they stopped short, fairly
out of breath. To her disgust and surprise, Elsie found that the
distance to the top of the hill looked even greater than when they had
been quite down at the bottom of it, and steeper a very great deal.
They rested for a while, catching hold of the tough heather stalks to
prevent them from slipping, then went on again, on and on, with
by-and-by another pause for breath. There was plenty of fun and
excitement in the climb, the only drawback being the weight and
inconvenience of their strong rough boots and Elsie's basket, which,
however, were each of them too useful to be left behind.

At last, however, the children reached the top, and Elsie stood still,
and looked all round in eager hope.

But, alas! the sight that met her view was one of keen disappointment.
The side of the hill descended very steeply into a narrow valley,
through which flowed a small stream. Beyond were hills stretching as far
as she could see, until their tall p