Ma and Mrs Scarfe, have bagged the pony trap and Appleby, and now you're looking as if you'd just been hung." "What are you in the blues about ?" said Jeffreys, brightening up a bit.
"Oh, everything.

It's so slow here, nothing to do.

Can't play games all day, and you won't let me smoke, and the library hasn't a single story worth reading, and it's beastly cold; and upon my word," said the boy, who was genuinely miserable, "I'd as soon go and sit on the top of Wild Pike as fool about here." "The best thing you could do--I'll go and sit with you," said Jeffreys.
"What!" said the boy, "do you mean it?
Will you come ?" "Of course I will; I have nothing special to do to-day, and I've never been up a mountain in winter before." "We shall get a splendid view.

Sure it won't grind you ?" said the boy, who, under Scarfe's influence, had come to look upon every exertion as a thing to be shirked.
"My dear fellow, I shall enjoy it, especially with you," said Jeffreys.
"Hurrah--bring Julius too--and I'll get some grub to take.

It's only ten now, and it's not dark till after four, so we have a good six hours." A few minutes later they started, Percy leaving word for his mother that they were going for a long tramp, and would be back for dinner.
It was a perfect winter's day.