CHAPTER V.
FROG-LAND.
"They have a pretty island, Whereon at night they rest; They have a sparkling lakelet, And float upon its breast." THE TWO SWANS.
Onwards quietly stepped the little procession, Houpet first, his tuft waving as usual, with a comfortable air of importance and satisfaction; then Nibble and Grignan abreast--hand-in-hand, I was going to have said; next Hugh and Jeanne; with the two attendant chickens behind bringing up the rear.
"I wonder where they are going to take us to," said Hugh in a low voice.
Somehow the soft light; the strange loneliness of the great plain, where, now that they were accustomed to it, the rushing of the numberless water-springs seemed to be but one single, steady sound; the solemn behaviour of their curious guides, altogether, had subdued the children's spirits.

Jeanne said no more about "having fun," yet she did not seem the least frightened or depressed; she was only quiet and serious.
"Where _do_ you think they are going to take us to ?" repeated Hugh.
"I don't know--at least I'm not sure," said Jeanne; "but, Cheri, isn't it a good thing that Houpet and the others are with us to show us the way, for though the ground looks so pretty it is quite boggy here and there.

I notice that Houpet never goes quite close to the fountains, and just when I went the least bit near one a minute ago my feet began to slip down." "I haven't felt it like that at all," said Hugh.

"Perhaps it's because of my wall-climbers.

Dudu gave me a pair of wall-climbers like the flies', you know, Jeanne." "Did he ?" said Jeanne, not at all surprised, and as if wall-climbers were no more uncommon than goloshes.