BEGGARS ON HORSEBACK. 93 



cloud in which its horns were plunged. As we 

 momently grew stiffer, the probability that the 

 sun would rise next morning seemed slighter 

 than usual, and we tried to persuade the thick- 

 set man to regard the position from our point of 

 view. But a Snowdon guide has an optimism 

 about sunrises, and a conviction in the matter of 

 a bird in the hand being worth two in the bush. 



This, w^e were assured, was the longest day in 

 the year. It w^ould be light all night. There was 

 a very good hotel on the top to which he, Griffith 

 Roberts, had guided forty people the night before, 

 all of whom had seen Ireland, Scotland, and the 

 Isle of Man at sunrise. 



Miss Jones, the landlady's daughter, interpreted 

 these things to us, and we recognised compassion 

 in her eye as she did so. Our craven hearts sank 

 low ; but we realised that, as Mark Twain has 

 sufficingly expressed, we must " crowd through 

 or bust." 



