aven send we have not to climb to a higher pass."

His remark made Head-nurse give way altogether. She wept loudly, saying
in that case she had better stay and die where she was, thus saving them
the trouble of carrying her down the hill.

At that very moment, however, Adam who had run far ahead began waving
his arms and shouting:

"He says 'The top! the top!'" cried Roy, who was keen in hearing as in
everything else. "Courage, mother! our troubles are over!"

They had not _quite_ ended, but in a few minutes more they had reached
the beginning of the pass proper. Before them lay a grassy boggy slope
curling gently upwards between higher rockier slopes. A little stream
plashed softly adown it, through a perfect wilderness of flowers, and
without one word the tired travellers threw themselves beside it for
rest and refreshment.

But Baby Akbar looked a little troubled.

"Amma, Dadda 'way 'way in a 'ky," he said solemnly, and essayed to crawl
on over the grass. For he could not walk yet, though he spoke so well.
They say he began to talk when he was nine months old.

CHAPTER IV

TUMBU-DOWN

After a while the party started on their way once more feeling greatly
brisked up. But the heat of the day was now upon them, and though the
snow lay close beside the path, the fierce sun melting it made the
vapour rise and turned the narrow valley into a regular steam bath.

The perspiration ran down the travellers' faces and especially down poor
Head-nurse's; for she had insisted on taking off her veil to twist it
turbanwise round Baby Akbar's head since the Royal Umbrella was
forbidden. Foster-mother had tried to take off hers also, but Head-nurse
had angrily forbidden her to do any such thing. If she, Head-nurse, died
of sunstroke what matter, but if Foster-mother failed, what--even though
one back tooth had been gloriously cut--would become of the
Heir-to-Empire, the Admired-of-the-World, the Great-in-Pomp, etc.?

So, to comfort herself she went on mumbling titles as she struggled
along, the sun beating fiercely on her bare head. Such a quaint head,
with sleek black hair parted and plaited and hung with jewels, even down
the long pigtail of brown wool that was added on to the back to make the
hair look more plentiful.

It was a piteous sight and Foster-mother was so conscious of the
devotion it meant that she said "Lo! Head-nurse, thou art a good, good
soul though a hard one to me; but I will never, never, nev