THE BLISSFULNESS OF TEA 107 



arduous job dragging him down to the pony path 

 quite 2,000 feet below. Anyway I know I was 

 jolly tired when I got down, and I had only the 

 rifle and two sticks to carry. Needless to say, 

 Susan and Sandy were frightfully excited to hear 

 what a thrilling time we had had since we had left 

 them, though it was bad luck on my two mascots 

 to have missed the fun. It was 6 o'clock when I 

 got down, and quarter to 7 before the pony with our 

 prize joined us, as Boa and the stag were about 

 half a mile farther up the path, he having pulled 

 it down straight, of course, whilst I had tottered 

 down in a slanting direction; and we were six 

 miles from the lodge, and only one pony between 

 us for riding, so we were indeed worn out when 

 we reached the lodge at 9 o'clock, though very 

 blissful at our double event. Tea and an egg 

 revived us wonderfully we had eaten scarcely 

 any lunch as we knew we had that enormous 

 climb directly afterwards, so it was from 

 8.30 a.m. till 9 p.m. on half a bap and a wee bit 

 of cake. But what is food and drink compared 

 to the elixir of excitement and the glamour of the 

 High Tops, and two stags of 16 stone 1 pound and 

 14 stone 7 pounds to complete one's blissfulness ! 

 But after bliss the blister. The drive home was a 

 terrible affair; it was 9.30 before we were ready to 

 start, and of course it was quite dark and very 

 misty, and our acetylene lamps were worse than 

 useless, as they turned the mist into a dense fog 



