look up there, I should see some dreadful thing mowing and
chowing at me," she added.

Rollo laughed, and they all walked on.

Presently the path began to ascend more rapidly, and soon it brought the
whole party out into the light, on the slope of an elevation which was
covered with the main body of the ruined castle. The man led the way up
a steep path, and then up a flight of ancient stone steps built against
a wall, until he came to an iron gateway. This he unlocked, and the
whole party went in, or rather went through, for as the roofs were gone
from the ruins, they were almost as much out of doors after passing
through the gateway as they were before.

Mr. George and the children gazed around upon the confused mass of
ruined bastions, towers, battlements, and archways, that lay before
them, with a feeling of awe which it is impossible to describe. The
grass waved and flowers bloomed on the tops of the walls, on the sills
of the windows, and on every projecting cornice, or angle, where a seed
could have lodged. In many places thick clusters of herbage were seen
growing luxuriantly from crumbling interstices of the stones in the
perpendicular face of the masonry, fifty feet from the ground. Large
trees were growing on what had formerly been the floors of the halls, or
of the chambers, and tall grass waved there, ready for the scythe.

There was one tower which still had a roof upon it. A steep flight of
stone steps led up to a door in this tower. The door was under a deep
archway. The guide led the way up this stairway, and unlocking the door,
admitted his party into the tower.

They found themselves, when they had entered, in a small, square room.
It occupied the whole extent of the tower on that story, and yet it was
very small. This room was in good condition, having been carefully
preserved, and was now the only remaining room of the whole castle which
was not dismantled and in ruins. But this room, though still shut in
from the weather, and protected in a measure from further decay,
presented an appearance of age wholly indescribable. The door where the
party had come in was on one side of it, and there was a window on the
opposite side, leading out to a little stone balcony. On the other two
sides were two antique cabinets of carved oak, most aged and venerable
in appearance, and of the most quaint construction. The walls and the
floor were of stone. In the middle of the floor, however, was a heavy
trap doo