صفحة 272 من 626

Presently she came to the top of a hill, down the side of which

there was a road so narrow that the cart wheels always chafed the

trees on each side as they passed. 'Ah, see now,' said she, 'how

they have bruised and wounded those poor trees; they will never

get well.' So she took pity on them, and made use of the butter

to grease them all, so that the wheels might not hurt them so

much. While she was doing this kind office one of her cheeses

fell out of the basket, and rolled down the hill. Catherine

looked, but could not see where it had gone; so she said, 'Well,

I suppose the other will go the same way and find you; he has

younger legs than I have.' Then she rolled the other cheese after

it; and away it went, nobody knows where, down the hill. But she

said she supposed that they knew the road, and would follow her,

and she could not stay there all day waiting for them.