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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