ter could not tell.

"Can she waalk?"

Peter couldn't walk--his limbs refused their office.

"Here, speel up on her back."

Peter could do that. He did it, and hugged Dan round the neck with the
tenacity of a shipwrecked mariner clinging to his last plank. The
sturdy Celt went down the mountain as lightly as if Peter were a fly,
and as if the vice-like grip of his arms round his throat were the
embrace of a worsted comforter.

"Here they are, ma'am!" screamed Mrs Brown.

She was wrong. Mrs Brown was usually wrong. Peter alone was deposited
before the eager gaze of Mrs Sudberry, who fainted away with
disappointment. Mrs Brown said "be off" to Peter, and applied
scent-bottles to her mistress. The poor boy's grateful heart wanted to
embrace somebody; so he went slowly and sadly upstairs, where he found
the cat, and embraced _it_. Hours passed away, and the Sudberry Family
still wandered lost, and almost hopeless, among the mountains.

STORY ONE, CHAPTER 12.

FOUND.

We left Mr Sudberry and his children in the nearly dry bed of a
mountain-torrent, indulging the belief that matters were as bad as could
be, and that, therefore, there was no possibility of their getting
worse.

A smart shower of rain speedily induced them to change their minds in
this respect. Seeking shelter under the projecting ledge of a great
cliff, the party stood for some time there in silence.

"You are cold, my pet," said Mr Sudberry.

"Just a little, papa; I could not help shuddering," said Lucy, faintly.

"Now for the brandy," said her father, drawing forth the flask.

"Suppose I try to kindle a fire," said George, swinging the bundle
containing Jacky off his shoulder, and placing it in a hollow of the
rocks.

"Well, suppose you try."

George proceeded to do so; but on collecting a few broken twigs he found
that they were soaking wet, and on searching for the match-box he
discovered that it had been left in the provision-basket, so they had to
content themselves with a sip of brandy all round--excepting Jacky.
That amiable child was still sound asleep; but in a few minutes he was
heard to utter an uneasy squall, and then George discovered that he had
deposited part of his rotund person in a puddle of water.

"Come, let us move on," said Mr Sudberry, "the rain gets heavier. It
is of no use putting off time, we cannot be much damper than we are."

Again the worthy man was mistaken; for, in the course of another hour,