We had heard of the bad state of the roads before we left our home, of the hills we had to mount, and the dingles we had to go down; of the terrible ravines on one side, and the bare rocks on the other, and of places where the least swerve of the carriage would send us over, and then, according to our informant, “it would be no use to go look for you.” At every turn of the road, then, we looked for some trial, and “screwed up our courage to the sticking-point,” that we might be enabled to overcome them; but after travelling for some time, and meeting with nothing very terrific, we began to console ourselves, and remark, that the difficulties appeared to lie in the imagination. At length, we came to a pretty steep hill, which we surmounted in due time, and again sped on our way joyfully, thinking that all was very fair, when lo! up rose before us, if not a _mountain_, at least, a _giant hill_. Here would be the “tug of war,” so we called a council. “What is to be done?” was the first query. “Why, either _go on_ or _go back_” was the answer. The old adage of “out of two evils, choose the least,” came into our thoughts. There was the hill behind, and the hill before, so we agreed to lay the various “for’s” and “against’s” before us in a very orthodox manner. To commence then: if we go on, we must mount this hill, but when we have accomplished that, we shall have no other of great consequence; we were near half way, so we should have almost as far to go back as to go on; on the other side, if we returned, we should still have a hill before us, and not have the consolation of visiting the celebrated “fig-tree.” Having come to the conclusion of our arguments, the word was given “forward,” and forward we attempted to go; but there were some of our party whose opinions had not been asked, but who, no doubt, felt as great concern in the decision as any one else; I mean those very noble animals ycleped “horses,” and for reasons my readers may easily conceive they appeared resolved not to proceed. After a few words of encouragement, however, and a few caresses, they agreed to lend us their aid, and once more we started.