“We’re going down to Cornwallis,” said the doctor, joyously. “We’re very much farther on than I supposed. We are evidently far beyond Smalley’s. I see how it is. In my anxiety to avoid swerving to the right, I have fallen, as you said, Bruce, into the opposite extreme, and have actually swerved to the left. That accounts for the immense length of our journey. Well, now that it’s over, I’m glad that it happened so. It brings us all the nearer to our destination. At the foot of the hill lives Mr. Atkins, who will give us far better accommodation than Smalley. One mile more, boys, only one mile, and then we’ll have rest.” The doctor’s encouraging words cheered all the boys, and the fact that they were actually descending the hill, and were thus every moment drawing nearer to their destination, had an additional influence in giving them fresh energy. So they descended farther and farther, and now kept on the lookout more vigilantly than ever for the welcome lights of some houses. “It’s a long descent,” said the doctor, “but every step is bringing us nearer to Atkins’s; so keep your courage up, boys, for we’ll soon be there now.” On they went, and descended lower and lower, till at last they seemed to have reached the plain, for the road became level, and went on straight, without any more windings. At length there appeared a faint light not far away on the left. “That must be Atkins’s,” said the doctor. “But how very thick the fog is even here! I never knew it so thick in Cornwallis. And the air is just like that of the sea-shore. It is very seldom that it is so on this side of the mountain.” “I suppose it’s the strong southerly wind,” said Bart. “Yes, I dare say.” “The wind seems to strike us here from a very odd direction. It must come across the Basin of Minas. It’s just as though it came from the east.” “O, we can’t tell,” said the doctor. “This road winds so that we get it sometimes in our faces, and sometimes in our backs.” “It must be after nine,” said Bruce. “Yes,” said the doctor; “and I dare say we’ve passed several houses on the road. The people here are not very liberal in the use of candles. They sit around the kitchen fire till about nine o’clock, and then go to bed. That’s the reason why we have not seen any lights. There must be quite a number of houses along here.” By this time they had come in front of the house. It stood about a dozen yards from the road. The light proceeded from a small, lower window. The house was only a cottage, and the dim outline of a barn could be seen a little farther on.