Grimkie then unfolded his map in order to explain to his aunt the general features of the country so far as they affected the different modes of travelling to the north of Scotland.

“Here is Wick,” said Grimkie, pointing to the situation of that town on the northwest coast of Scotland. It lies as the reader will see by the map, north of a great bay formed by the union of Murray and Dornock Firths. Grimkie pointed out the situation of Wick and also that of Inverness, which lies in the bottom of the bay, at the head of Murray Firth.

“The steamer,” he says, “sails from Edinburgh once a week. She touches at Aberdeen, for that is directly in her way, on the eastern coast.”

Here Grimkie pointed out the situation of Aberdeen.

“But she does not go to Inverness,” continued Grimkie, “although that is a very large and important town, because that would take her too much out of her way. So she steers right across the mouth of the bay, where she must be in the open sea for some time, and makes for Wick. There she takes in freight and passengers, and then sails again north along the coast to the Orkney Islands. The town where she stops in the Orkneys is Kirkwall. After that she sails on and goes to the Shetland Islands, fifty or sixty miles farther over the open sea.”

“But Grimkie,” said Mrs. Morelle, “why did not you propose to go to the Shetland Islands instead of the Orkneys, while you were about it? You would be still more among the Norsemen’s seas there, and the nights would be still shorter.”

“Ah!” said Grimkie, “that was my discretion, Auntie. I should like very much to go on to the end of the route, and to see the Shetland ponies, but I knew that you and Florence would not like so long a voyage, and so I only proposed going to the Orkneys.”

“That was discretion indeed,” said Mrs. Morelle. “But tell us the rest of the plan. How about getting to Wick?”

“The next stage this side of Wick,” said Grimkie, “is Inverness. From Inverness to Wick we should go by stage-coach. That we should all like. You said the other day, on board ship, that you would like one more good ride in an English stage-coach, and here is an excellent chance. The road winds in and out to pass round the lochs and firths, and then coasts along the sea delightfully. At least so my guide book says. There is one splendid pass which it goes through, equal to Switzerland.”

“I should like that very much,” said Mrs. Morelle. “And now how about getting to Inverness?”

“There are three ways,” said Grimkie. “We can go by the railroads on the eastern side of the island, or by coaches and posting up through the center, or by inland steam navigation on the western side.”

Grimkie then went on to explain what he had learned by long study of the maps and guide books during the day. The information which he communicated was substantially as follows:

The western part of Scotland north of Glasgow is so mountainous, and so intersected in every direction with long and narrow bays setting in from the sea, and also with inland lakes, that no railroad can well be made there. By connecting these lakes, however, and by cutting across one or two narrow necks of land, and making canals and locks along the sides of some rapid rivers, a channel of inland navigation has been opened, by which steamers can pass all the way from Glasgow to Inverness, through the very heart of the country. The route of the steamers in taking this voyage, for some portion of the way, lies along the shore of the sea, but it is in places where the water is so sheltered by islands and by lofty promontories and headlands, that the ocean swell has very little access to it in any part of the way.

On the eastern coast, on the other hand, the country is comparatively smooth and well cultivated, and a line of railroad extends on this side all the way from Edinburgh to Inverness. Thus the party might, as Grimkie explained the case to them, either go, up to Inverness from Edinburgh by railroad, on the eastern side, through a smooth and beautiful country filled with green and fruitful fields, and with thriving villages and towns,—or by steamboat from Glasgow on the western side, among dark mountains and frowning precipices, and wild but beautiful solitudes. Florence voted at once and very eagerly in favor of the mountains.

“Then there is a third course still that we can take,” said Grimkie; “we can go up through the center of the island.”

“And how shall we travel in that case?” asked Mrs. Morelle.

“There is no railroad yet through the center,” said Grimkie, “and no steamboat route. So we should have to go by coach, or else by a hired carriage.”

“And what sort of a country is it?” asked Florence.

“Some parts of it are very beautiful,” said Grimkie, “and some parts are very wild. We should go through the estates of some of the grandest noblemen in Great Britain. The guide book says that one duke that lives there planted about twenty-five millions of trees on his grounds, but I don’t believe it.”

“It may be so,” said Mrs. Morelle.

“Twenty-five millions is a great many,” said Grimkie.

“I don’t see where he could get so many trees,” said John.

“Probably he raised them from seed in his own nurseries,” said Mrs. Morelle.

“He could not have nurseries big enough to raise so many,” said John.

“Let us see,” said Grimkie. “Suppose he had a nursery a mile square and the little trees grew in it a foot apart. We will call a mile five thousand feet. It is really more than five thousand feet, but we will call it that for easy reckoning. That would give us five thousand rows and five thousand trees in a row—five thousand times five thousand.”

Grimkie took out his pencil and figured with it for a moment, on the margin of a newspaper, and then said,

“It makes exactly twenty-five millions. So that if he had a nursery a mile square, and planted the trees a foot apart, he would have just enough.”

“Never mind the Duke of Athol’s trees,” said Mrs. Morelle. “Let us finish planning our journey.”

But here the door opened and two waiters came in bringing the dinner. So the whole party took their seats at the table. Afterward, while they were sitting at the table, Mrs. Morelle asked Grimkie what he had concluded upon as the best way for them to take of all the three which he had described, in case they should decide to go to the Orkney Islands.

“You see, Auntie,” said he, “we shall of course go by railway from here to Glasgow, and it will make a pleasant change to take the steamboat there. It is a beautiful steamboat and excellently well managed. It is used almost altogether for pleasure travelling, and every thing is as nice in it as a pin. Then it must be very curious to see the green glens and the sheep pastures, and the highland shepherds on the mountains, as we are sailing along. Then when we got to Inverness we shall change again into the stage-coach, to go to Wick, and at Wick we shall take the deep sea steamer. So we shall have a series of pleasant changes all the way.”

“I am not sure how pleasant the last one will be,” said Mrs. Morelle.

“If we have pleasant weather and a smooth sea, I think it will be very pleasant indeed,” said Grimkie. “It will be amusing to think how far we are going away, and also to see what kind of people there will be going to the Orkney and Shetland Islands.”

“But suppose it should not be pleasant weather and a smooth sea.”

“Then we will not go,” said Grimkie. “We will stop at Wick and come back again, if we do not wish to wait for the next steamer. It will be a very curious and interesting journey to Wick, even if we do not go any farther at all.”

Mrs. Morelle said that she would consider the subject, and give her decision the next morning.

The next morning she told the children that she had concluded to go, and to follow the plan which Grimkie had marked out for the journey.

“But there is one thing that we must not overlook,” said she. “We must be sure that we have got money enough. So you must make a calculation how long it will take us to go, and how much it will cost. Of course you can not calculate exactly, but you can come near enough for our purpose. When you have made the calculation, put down the items on paper and show it to me.”

Grimkie made the calculation as his aunt had requested. He did not attempt to estimate the expense of each day precisely. That would have been impossible. He reckoned in general the hotel expenses, all the way, at so much a day, from the number of days which it would require, and then from the railway guide and other books he found what the fares would be for the travelling part of the work. He also made a liberal allowance for porterage, coach hire, and other such things. When he had made out his account he gave it to Mrs. Morelle, and she showed it to the keeper of the hotel, and asked him if he thought that was a just estimate. Mr. Lynn, after examining it carefully, said that he thought it was a very good estimate indeed, and that the allowances were all liberal; and as the total came entirely within the amount which Mrs. Morelle had with her in sovereigns, she concluded that it would be safe to proceed.

The party accordingly went to the station that very afternoon and took passage for Carlisle, a town near the frontier of Scotland, and on the way to Glasgow.