19 A great disappointment – and a plan
　　It certainly was a stiff climb again, up the steep, rather stony¹ slope to the ledge² they could seesome way above. Lucy-Ann almost cried because her feet kept slipping so.
　　‘I take one step up, and slip two steps back,’ she wailed³.
　　‘Well, hang on to me then,’ said Philip, and gave her a tug⁴ up each time she took a step.
　　They all wanted a rest when they came to the next ledge, and to their delight they saw a patch ofwild raspberries growing there. They could sit down in the canes⁵ and feast as they rested. Lovely!
　　Kiki liked the raspberries very much indeed, and ate so many that Jack⁶ called to her.
　　‘Kiki! You’ll go pop!’
　　‘Pop goes the weasel,’ answered Kiki, and helped herself to a few dozen more raspberries.
　　Soon they all felt they could go on again. They were very high up now, and could see evenmore mountains towering behind the ones they knew. It was a most magnificent sight.
　　‘I feel very small and lost somehow, with all those great mountains sitting there,’ said Lucy-Ann, and the others felt the same. ‘Come on – let’s go round the ledge now. We shall soon see theroad. Thank goodness this ledge isn’t narrow. It’s almost wide enough to take a car.’
　　It was not so easy walking round the ledge as Lucy-Ann thought, however, for there had been afall of rocks there, further along, and there was a good deal of scrambling⁷ about to be done. Theywere thankful when they had got over the rock-fall and come to smoother ground again.
　　The ledge rounded a bend in the mountainside, and then, quite suddenly, the children saw theroad below them. Yes, it was really a road! They stood and looked at it in delight.
　　‘I never thought I should be so pleased to see a road again,’ said Dinah. ‘The road out of thevalley! The road to Somewhere at last!’

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