66 "Yes," said Grimkie.

"When the horses go

so fast they have to be changed very often. Have you got a good seat ?"

"An excellent seat," said Florence. "I have got a window all to myself."

"And can you see the country ?" asked Grimkie.

"Oh, yes!" said Florence, "I can see it beautifully, I have got one window and mother has got the other."

"And mother says," she added, after turning her head a moment, "that you and Johnnie must be careful not to fall off.”

"There is no danger, tell her,” replied Grimkie. "We have good safe seats, with an iron railing at the two ends to keep us in."

By this time the fresh horses were put in, and the coachman having mounted to his place again, the coach was soon rolling on along the road, faster even than before.

Soon after this the sun went down, but the clouds which he left behind him in the western sky, were for a time almost as bright as he himself had been, so that at half past nine there seemed to be no sensible diminution of the light of day. The track of the sun too, in going down, was so oblique to the horizon, that even at halfpast ten his distance below it was very small,

and Grimkie and John could see the country all about them, and the time by their watches, and the places through which they were passing, just as well almost as ever.

From half-past ten to eleven there was still very little change. The children were all playing in the streets of the villages that they passed, and groups of men and boys had collected at the doors of the inns where they stopped, as they would have done at half-past seven or eight o'clock in a summer evening in America. Even the hens did not seem to know that it was night, for they were rambling about, and scratching at every unusual appearance on the grounds, as briskly as in any part of the day.

"I don't see how the children know when to go to bed," said John.

66 А

"Or the hens either," said Grimkie. Connecticut rooster I should think would be greatly mystified here. He would not lead his hens off to roost until he saw it growing dark,and then if he began to crow again as soon as he saw any light, he would not give them any time to sleep at all."

After eleven o'clock the boys found that at each succeeding village or hamlet that they came to fewer and fewer people appeared, until at length at twelve, and between twelve and one,

the country seemed deserted, and yet the light continued. It was a strange thing, the boys thought, to drive into a village in broad daylight, and to find the streets silent and solitary, and without a person being visible at any door or window; and still more sometimes, when they stopped to change horses, to see that the coachman was obliged to knock upon the stabledoor to wake the ostlers up, while by the aspect of the whole scene around, there was nothing that betokened night.

It was not much after midnight when the coach arrived at the Mickle Ferry. The Mickle Ferry means the great ferry. It is so called to distinguish it from another smaller one in the neighborhood called the Little Ferry. The Mickle Ferry passes across a narrow part of the Dornoch Firth, as may be seen by the map. The firth is a mile or two wide, at the ferry, and is crossed in a large flat-bottomed sail-boat, sufficient to convey the passengers and their lug-. gage in perfect safety, but not large enough for the coach.

The coach was accordingly to be left on the hither side of the ferry, another being provided on the farther side, to receive the passengers at the landing and take them on.

The company in the coach, accordingly, on