BEGGARS ON HORSEBACK. 



At the next field the boy paused, seeming to 

 consider that we had had our pennyworth ; further 

 moneys at intervals impelled him upwards to the 

 highest limits of the "pasture-land ; but there, un- 

 moved even by the sight of sixpence, he left us, 

 with the information that when we had gone as 

 high as we could, we should — if we did not lose 

 our way — find a gate, and from that gate a good 

 road would take us to Llanberis. The instructions 

 had a pleasing simplicity, and, if applied to a tree 

 or a pyramid, would have been easily followed. 

 The Snowdon range, however, offers a large selec- 

 tion of highest points, and of these we naturally 

 chose the lowest and nearest. The Tommies crept 

 like beetles athwart the slant of the hill, and we, 

 our feelings of humanity somewhat blunted by the 

 exertions of the morning, sat upon their backs, and 

 saw momently a little more of their persons in front 

 of us, as the saddles receded towards their tails. 



The hill was above us in heather on our left, 

 below us in steep pasture on the right, and the 

 Tommies were digging their hoofs into a slanting 



