The next morning after this conversation took place, Mr. George and the boys bade Stirling farewell, and set off in the cars, on the way to Loch Leven. After riding about an hour they left the train at the station called Dunfermline, where there was a ruin of an abbey, and of an ancient royal palace of Scotland. They left their baggage at the station, and walked through the village till they came to the ruin. It was a very beautiful ruin, and the party spent more than an hour in rambling about it, and looking at the old monuments, and the carved and sculptured windows, and arches, and cornices, all wasted and blackened by time and decay. A part of the ruin was still in good repair, and was used as a church, though it was full of old sepulchral monuments and relics. There was a woman in attendance at the door, to show the church to those who wished to see the interior of it. After looking at these ruins as long as they wished, Mr. George and the boys went back to the station, in order to take the next train that came by, and continue their journey. They went on about an hour longer, and then they got out again at a station called Cowdenbeath, which was the place on the road that was nearest to Loch Leven, and where they had understood that there was a coach, which went to Loch Leven twice a day. The place was very quiet and still, and was in the midst of a green and pretty country, with small groups of stone cottages here and there. There were also several pretty tall chimneys scattered about the fields, with a sort of platform, and some wheels and machinery near each of them. These were the mouths of coal pits. The wheels and machinery were for hoisting up the coal. In the yard of the station they found the Loch Leven coach. It was in the form of a very short omnibus. The coachman said that he had just come in from Loch Leven, and that he was going to set out on his return at eight. It was now about seven, so that Mr. George and the boys had an hour to walk about, and see what was to be seen. It was a pleasant summer evening, and they enjoyed the rambles that they took very much indeed. They walked through several of the little hamlets, and saw the women sitting at the doors of their cottages, with their young children in their arms, while the older ones were running about, here and there, at play. They went to some of the coal pits, and saw the immense iron levers, driven by steam, that were slowly moving to and fro, hard at work pumping up water from the bottom of the mine. They took quite a walk, too, along the turnpike road, and saw a post-chaise drive swiftly by, with a footman behind, and a postilion in livery on one of the horses.