Page:The House Without Windows.djvu/120

 the soft grass and among the flowers, with the tinkle, tinkle of a little brook in their ears all night. The next morning they climbed the hill together, and it was very steep and rocky. Fleuriss had to be helped often, and grew tired before she reached the top. But Eepersip lured her on by the promise of seeing the ocean, and they struggled painfully up.

The sea stretched away to the horizon, blue and sparkling as it met the sky. Fleuriss was spellbound.

"Eepersip, is that the sea?" she asked.

"Yes, Fleurissthe sea, the sea!"

Off to the north was a range of high blue-green hills, and off beyond them higher ones, and higherbillowing mountainsand beyond them was a range of snowy peaks, rising, sharply outlined, into the blue. The lakelet where they had slept was like an opal set with dark green pines. But those mountains! never before had Eepersip seen anything like them. The sea was not nearly so beautiful. And again she felt that longing which she had felt when she saw the seabut a more passionate longing.

And Fleuriss? How could she climb those great peaksshe, who had had great difficulty even with the little hill? Well, Fleuriss could grow more