I30 BEGGARS ON HORSEBACK. 



a clump of heather, and was emerging from it, 

 hatless, and in a state of the highest indignation. 

 There is an unconscious, undesired picturesqueness 

 about a person whose hair has come down, and I did 

 not altogether refrain from mentioning this to Miss 

 O'Flannigan, but she had lost her interest in the 

 picturesque. The Tommies, fortunately, viewed 

 the affair from one aspect only — that of a heaven- 

 bestowed interval for food ; and during the arduous 

 processes of re-saddling and of binding the hold- 

 alls, like burnt-offerings, to the horns of the saddles 

 (for v/e had determined upon walking till we 

 reached the top of the hill), they did not give us a 

 moment's anxiety. 



No eyes but those of the aghast, black-faced 

 sheep and the coldly interested carrion-crows wit- 

 nessed the occurrence, or the subsequent proces- 

 sion upwards, over slippery grass and through 

 the boundless quagmires caused by a stream that 

 seemed newly spilled on the face of the hill, and 

 was still wandering in search of a bed. The hut 

 on the top of Snowdon was visible — an angular 



