THE SLAB. 4a:

mother, who came out to see whether it was
really true that Comfort was perfectly willing to
have Lucy go. When she found that she was
willing, her mother consented. At first Eben
wanted to go, too; but Robert persuaded him to
go with him. He was going off into the field
with a cart, and he said, if Eben would go with
him, he would let him ride in the cart. Eben, on
the whole, concluded that he would ride in the
cart; and so he got out of the wagon, and went
away ; and in a moment after, Comfort and Lucy
went riding out of the yard together.

Comfort turned the horse in the opposite direc-
tion to the one from which Lucy had come with
her father and mother when they first came to
the General’s. Lucy was glad of this, for she
wanted to go in a new road. After riding a
short distance along a smooth and level road,
they began to descend a hill which seemed to
be carrying them down into a dark and shady
valley.

The high mountains were all around them;
and now and then Lucy had a view of water
down the valley far before them. Lucy thought,
too, that she could hear the noise of water tum-
bling over rocks down in a deep and dark ravine,
filled with forests, on the side of the road.