nd scattered great masses of rock all over
the gorge thus formed, you would have an idea of the soft of place in
which our belated travellers found themselves. Yet even here there were
little patches of cultivated ground, behind rocks and in out-of-the-way
corners, where the poor inhabitants cultivated a little barley and grass
for their cattle.

It was a lovely calm night. Had you been there, reader, you would have
said it was day, not night. There was no sound to break the deep
stillness of all around except the murmur of many cataracts of melted
snow-water, that poured down the mountainsides like threads of silver or
streams of milk. But the rush of these was so mellowed by distance that
the noise was soft and agreeable.

"I say, Grant, this will never do," said Fred gravely.

"I suppose not," returned Grant, with a yawn.

"What say you, Sam,--shall we go on?"

"I think so. They can have nothing to give us in such miserable huts as
these except grod [barley-meal porridge], and sour milk, and dirty
beds."

"Perhaps not even so much as that," said Fred, turning to his driver.
"How far is it, my man, to the next station?"

"Ten miles, sir."

"Hum; shall we go on, comrades?"

"Go on; forward!" cried Grant and Sorrel.

So on they went as before, over hill and dale for ten miles, which poor
Sam (who was very sleepy, but could not sleep in the cariole) declared
were much more like twenty miles than ten.

The sun was up, and the birds were twittering, when they reached the
next station. But what was their dismay when they found that it was
poorer and more miserable than the last! It lay in a wilder gorge, and
seemed a much more suitable residence for wolves and bears than for
human beings. Indeed, it was evident that the savage creatures referred
to did favour that region with their presence, for the skin of a wolf
and the skull of a bear were found hanging on the walls of the first hut
the travellers entered.

The people in this hamlet were extremely poor and uncommonly stupid.
Living as they did in an unfrequented district, they seldom or never saw
travellers, and when Fred asked for something to eat, the reply he got
at first was a stare of astonishment.

"We must hunt up things for ourselves, I see," cried Sam Sorrel,
beginning to search through the hut for victuals. Seeing this, the
people assisted him; but all that they could produce was a box of barley
meat and two large flat dishes of sour m