Off went the brother and sister, but they had proceeded some way from the door before they got beyond reach of the sound of Miss Folly's chattering tongue.
Down hill Puzzle, across brook Bother, along Trouble lane, fat little Lubin and Nelly went very sociably together.
"I don't think that you're as lame as you were," said the boy.
"The way seems shorter than it did," observed Nelly; "but one feels the hill most when coming back."
As the children passed Mr. Reading's fine shop, little Alphabet peeped through the grating, to the no small annoyance of Lubin.
"Ha, ha! my brave fellow!" cried the dwarf, "have you mounted the ladder of Spelling, and have you now come to jump over my head?"
Lubin did not answer, but quickened his pace. He and his sister soon found themselves at the bottom of Multiplication stairs.
"I wonder how we shall ever get up to the top?" thought lame Nelly, as, with rather a disconsolate air, she glanced up the twelve flights of steps.