30 LUCY AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.

“O, what a strange-looking place !” said Lucy
“ J never saw such a strange-looking place. Come
and see, mother.”

Her mother went to the window to see. Di-
rectly before them, under the window, there was
a little green yard, with a stone wall running
along the back side of it. Beyond the wall,
there were trees and bushes; and the land
seemed to descend into a little valley, where
Lucy thought she could hear a brook tumbling
over stones. Beyond the brook there was a vast
forest, rising higher and higher up the declivities
of the mountains. ‘The mountains were so high,
that Lucy had to move away more of the curtain
before she could see the summits. They were
steep and gray. Lucy could see them very
distinctly ; for the moon had come up, and was
shining upon them. In a place lower down,
there was a great, rocky precipice, which pro-
jected out from among the trees. Lucy said to
herself, that she was glad Royal did not see it;
for, if he did, she knew that he would want to
be climbing up to the top of it, and she should
be afraid that he would fall.

When Lucy went back into the great room
again with her mother, she found that there was
a round table set out in the middle of the floor,