London to John O 1 Groat's. 209 



crowd of little people. For a whole minute, longer 

 than a full hour of ordinary schoolboy enjoyments, they 

 had to stand facing that sight, involuntarily attitu- 

 dinising for the plunge. At the end of that long 

 minute, the signal sounded, and, in an instant, there 

 was a scene in the ring that would have made the 

 soberest octogenarian shake his sides with the laughter 

 of his youth. The encircling multitude of youngsters 

 darted upon the thickly scattered delicacies like a flock 

 of birds upon a field of grain, with patter, twitter and 

 nutter, and a tremor and treble of little short laughs ; 

 small, eager hands trying in vain to shut fast upon a 

 large apple and several ginger-nuts at one grasp ; slip- 

 pings and trippings, tousling of tresses and crushing 

 of dresses ; boys and girls higgledy-piggledy ; caps and 

 bonnets piggledy-higgledy ; little red-faced Alexanders 

 looking half sad, because they had filled their small 

 pocket-worlds and both hands with apples and nuts, 

 and had no room nor holding for more ; little girls, 

 with broken bonnet-strings, and long, sunny hair 

 dancing over their eyes, stretching their short fingers 

 to grasp another goodie, all this, with the merry 

 excitement of fathers and mothers, elder brothers and 

 sisters, and other spectators, made it a scene of 

 youthful life and delight which would test the genius 

 of the best painter of the age to delineate. And 



