st drawn by seven
horses, the second by five, while the carrier's little cart with one
brought up the rear. But still three muffled ladies sat upon a cool
stone in the dark square, waiting for the spectre to keep his promise.

He did like a man; for suddenly the doors of an old stable flew open,
and out rattled a comfortable carriage with a pair of stout little
horses jingling their bells, and a brisk driver, whose voice was
pleasant, as he touched his hat and invited the ladies to enter,
assuring them that they would soon overtake and pass the heavy
diligences before them.

'Never again will I doubt you, my Amanda,' cried the Raven, packing
herself into the dowager's corner with a grateful heart.

'I hope the top of this carriage opens, for I _must_ see _everything_,'
cried Matilda, prancing about on the front seat in a chaos of wraps,
books, bottles, and lunch-baskets.

'Of course it does, and when there is anything to see we will see it. It
is dark and cold now, so we'd better all go to sleep again.'

With which sage remark, Amanda burrowed into her cloaks and slumbered.
But not the other two. Matilda stuck her head out of one window,
uttering little cries of wonder and delight at all she saw; while Livy
watched the solemn stars pale one by one as the sky brightened, and felt
as if she were climbing up, out of a dark valley of weariness and pain,
into a new world full of grand repose.

Slowly winding higher and higher through the damp pine forest, softly
stirring in the morning wind, they saw the sky warm from its cold gray
to a rosy glow, making ready for the sun to rise as they never saw it
rise before.

'Full many a glorious morning have I seen,
Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye,'

but never more wonderfully than on that day. Long after the distant
peaks flamed in the ruddy light, they rode in shadow; but turning
suddenly round a corner, the sun came dazzling through a great gorge,
startling them with the splendour it brought.

Down went the carriage-top, and standing bolt upright, three pairs of
eager eyes drank in the grandeur and the beauty that makes the crossing
of the Simplon an experience to live for ever in the memory. Peak after
peak of the Bernese Oberland rose behind them, silver white against a
wonderful blue sky. Before them Monte Rosa, touched with the morning
red, and all around great glaciers glittering in the sunshine, awful
gorges with torrents thundering from