THE RETURN. | 175

mouthfuls of grass, and then turned around,
beginning to walk towards Robert.

Robert stopped on the end of the bridge, and
waited for him, holding out the paper in his hand.
When Hero got near, Robert stooped down, and
poured out the salt upon the plank floor of the
bridge. To Lucy’s surprise, the horse came to -
the place, and began to lick up the salt with his
great tongue. While he was doing it, Robert put
the bridle on. ‘Then he stood still, and let the
horse finish eating the salt, and then led him
away.

«TI shouldn’t like to eat so much salt,” said
Lucy.

Robert harnessed the horse into the wagon, and
then they got in, and drove away. They rode
an hour or two by a way which went winding
around among forests and mountains, sometimes
opening before them, so that they could see wide
prospects, and sometimes shut in by rocks, and
towering trees, which overhung the road, and
made it sombre and solitary.

After a time, they began to ascend a pretty
steep and winding road, shut in by the forests and
mountains. Sometimes they had by their side, as
they travelled slowly along, a noisy brook, some-
times a morass, covered with cedars and firs; and
sometimes an impenetrable thicket growing out of
steep slopes of land covered with moss, and rocks,
and trunks of fallen trees. All this time they
were constantly ascending. Still, althougn they
were gradually gaining a high elevation, they had