"Some time I'll tell you, maybe. I guess I shall need all my breath before I get up the Peak. I am not so spry as I was last time I came." "I'll help you up," said Fidelia. "Oh, I guess I shan't need any help! I'll start now, and take it slowly. I don't suppose I shall miss the way." "I will go with you," said Fidelia. Dr Justin looked as if he would like to go too, but he did not. He shut the glass with a snap, and turned to the group still standing on the edge of the rock looking northwards; and the two set off together. They went on slowly and silently till they came to a point where the path they had followed became two paths, the one going up the steep side of the mountain, the other holding northward along the ledge. "Now I ought to know which path to take, but I don't feel sure about this," said Mrs Stone meditatively. "They say the longest way round is the nearest way home; and according to that we should hold on round the ledge. The path will take us somewhere." But it did not seem to do so, for in a little they came up against a steep rock, and Mrs Stone owned herself at a loss and out of breath. Fidelia proposed that she should sit down and rest, while she went alone in search of the path. "No; we'll keep together. I don't suppose we can be lost; at any rate two people are not so lost as one alone would be. We'll keep together." They must have turned themselves round in some way, for they could not find the point where they had left the ascending path. By-and-by they came to a shelving rock where the bushes had been recently pressed down; some broken branches, still unwithered, lay near. "This must be the near way that Jabez and the boys took," said Fidelia, "We ought to be able to find our way now." But they did not find it after several attempts. Mrs Stone was firm in refusing to let Fidelia separate from her. "Two are better than one," said she. At last they came to a point where they got a glimpse of the valley lying west of the mountain. The land-marks were familiar, only it seemed as though north and south had changed places, Mrs Stone said. Another attempt brought them back to the place where they had found the broken branches, and they had fancied themselves going in the other direction. "Well, there! I guess we'd better sit down till some one comes to find us. Not that we are lost. I never heard yet of any one being lost on Shattuck Peak for more than an hour or two. Why didn't I think of it before, dear? Are you too hungry and tired to sing, Fidelia? I shouldn't wonder if they were beginning to worry about us up there. They'll be listening." Fidelia clambered a little higher, and sang "The Star-spangled Banner," smiling a little at the thought of the time when she sang it with the boys on Eastwood Hill. She wondered that she had not thought of lifting up her voice sooner.