CHAPTER, XIV. 
HOMEWARD BOUND. 
WE now turn our faces toward the outer 
world,—the world which had, until this mo- 
ment, been forgotten. We had been beguiled 
along from one scene of novelty and of grandeur 
and beauty to another; ever surprised and de- 
lighted with the endless variety, and mutely 
wondering what next would appear, until at 
length we found that we had reached the end of 
our journey—the “ Ultima Thule” of the Cave, 
as Stephen was wont to say—without being con- 
scious of bodily fatigue, and without remember- 
ing that we had already been eight hours away 
from that world where the sun shines, where 
the birds sing, and the fields display their ver- 
dure. But at the moment of turning back all 
these thoughts flood over us: a sense of phys- 
ical weariness steals on us, and we are startled 
by the reflection that we are nine miles from 
the mouth of the cavern, and that there is no 
way of reaching it except by the same road over 
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