Calculation of Mileage 



The old grandfather sat in the blazing chimney-corner, 

 playing with his grandchild, a stout little boy about five 

 years old, of whom he was very proud. In intellect they 

 were about on a level ; but the little boy, in the vivacious 

 wilfulness of his youth, had entirely the upper hand of the 

 pottering old patriarch, who seemed quite happy and uncon- 

 scious of the infant tyranny under which he laboured. 



The ride from Alhama to Granada is grand and dreary. 

 Barren undulating table-land, without a tree to break the 

 sky-line of rugged mountain summits all around. The day 

 was dark and windless, and the vapours, which had been 

 scouring about overnight, lay in great, soft, lazy pillows and 

 feather-beds among the snowy jags. 



We overtook a crippled soldier with his crutches, charged 

 on an ass, whose master encouraged him to keep up his 

 pace with many thwacks from behind. The soldier was in 

 great spirits, returning to his native Granada after an 

 absence of a dozen years, singing and loquacious, and quite 

 confident that his native air would soon set him on his legs 

 again. He had been broken down by some artillery acci- 

 dent at Tarifa. It appeared he paid a real a league for 

 being carried on the donkey — about l\d. We began to 

 compare our own expenses, and cast up our account to 

 form an average of our expense per mile. It cost us about 

 three shillings and sixpence to four shillings each day for 

 ourselves and our beasts. This, divided by twenty, the 

 number of miles we generally go in a day, makes an average 

 of a little over id. a mile, which is not ruinous. Of course 

 in the large towns it is more, this being calculated for the 

 scale of costs on the road. 



We had been descending gradually towards an isolated 

 mound, which stood at the bottom of a long slope, and had 

 been in sight many miles ; in fact, ever since turning the 



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