t took all the afternoon to make the journey, for the roads were
rough and hilly, and fast going was impossible. Eyebright did not care
how slowly they went. Every step of the way was interesting to her,
full of fresh sights and sounds and smells. She had never seen such
woods as those which they passed through. They looked as if they might
have been planted about the time of the Deluge, so dense and massive
were their growths. Many of the trees were old and of immense size.
Some very large ones had fallen, and their trunks were thickly crusted
with fungi and long hair-like tresses of gray moss. Here and there
were cushions of green moss, so rich and luxuriant as to be the
softest sitting-places imaginable. Eyebright longed to get out and
roll on them; the moss seemed at least a yard deep. Once they passed
an oddly shaped broad track by the road-side, which the driver told
them was the foot-mark of a bear. This was exciting. And a little
farther on, at the fording of a shallow brook, he showed them where a
deer had stopped to drink the night before, and left the impression of
his slender hoofs in the wet clay.

It was as interesting as a story to be there, so near the haunts of
these wild creatures. Then, leaving the woods, they would come to wide
vistas of country, with pine-clad hills and slopes and beautiful
gleaming lakes. And twice from the top of an ascent they caught the
outlines of a bold mountain-range. A delicious air blew down from
these mountains, cool, crystal clear, and spiced with the balsamic
smell of hemlocks and firs and a hundred lovely wood-odors beside.

"Oh, isn't Maine beautiful!" cried Eyebright, in a rapture. She felt a
sort of resentment against Wealthy for having called it a
"God-forsaken" place. "But Wealthy didn't know: she never was here,"
was her final conclusion. "If she ever had been here, she couldn't
have been so silly."

It was too dark to see much of Scrapplehead when at last they got
there. It was a small place, nestled in an angle of the hills. The
misty gray ocean lay beyond. Its voice came to their ears as they
descended the last steep pitch, a hushed low voice with a droning
tone, as though it were sleepy-time with the great sea. There was no
tavern in the village, and they applied at several houses before
finding any one willing to accommodate them. By this time, Eyebright
was very tired, and could hardly keep from crying as they drove away
from the third place.

"What sha