"I am afraid I can't conscientiously take any credit for it, Miss Mary," he answered, with a smile, and (some of the company considered) an affected shrug of the shoulders. "My constitutional antipathy to early rising has often caused me great inconvenience, and I am heartily glad that for once it has merited approbation.-May I hope, Miss Henrietta -turning from his right-hand to his left-hand neighbor" that you indorse Miss Mary's approval?"

"Of course," was the reply. "Who is not pleased to find his own fault lessened by contrast with that of another?

permit an unimpeded view around and above them. But, lower down, all was still wrapped in pale, soft-gray haze.

"Beautiful!" "Grand!" "Exquisite!" "Magnificent!" were the exclamations uttered on all sides, as eager glances turned from point to point of the extensive prospect. The narrow gorge, about the middle of which they were standing, was in deep shadow-for the sun rose immediately behind the mountain in the rear of the house; but, like an aureola, his yellow light rested on the brow of the pinnacle that loomed up before themloomed up, to such immense height, that it seemed literally to pierce the heavens-and looked down with a blaze from which the sight shrank back dazzled. To the left, the view was closed in by a succession of peaks innumerably varied in form, height, and color. Some were clothed with the most luxuriant foliage and verdure; some were broad and brown and bare; some tall, rugged, gray. Light and shade flickered over the whole, as the level rays of the sun streamed here and there through breaks in the mountain-range, producing effects of indescribable loveliness and grandeur. But the most singular as well as the most beautiful part of the landscape lay to the right of the spectators. Almost at their feet they beheld an apparently limitless dep-sea-calm and glassy as a summer lake

She spoke lightly; but the young man, who knew every expression of her face, and every intonation of her voice, saw that she was very much annoyed-his conscience told him why. Nor was he the only person present who discovered the fact. Her father smiled secretly, and so far relaxed from the testy manner with which he had received the salutations and apologies of the three offenders, as to wait very patiently while they breakfasted. He took out his watch then, and held it up for the inspection of his daughter and niece.

"Do you remember the hour at which we were to start?" he asked.

"Now, papa, pray don't begin to scold!" cried Henrietta, with a glance of comic recation. "We did our best to be ready.Didn't we, Mary?

"Our very best," responded Miss Hayes. "I am sure I never dressed half as quickly before in my life.-You need not look such unutterable things, Mr. Fitzgerald! If the truth was known, I don't doubt but that you and Mr. Godwin dislike early rising just as much as Henrietta and Mr. Ellerby and myself do-though you have managed to get up such an examplary character for it, since we have been travelling. All false pretences to deceive uncle, I'm convinced."

The gentlemen thus accused laughed, but Mr. Denham gave them no time to defend themselves.

"I only wish that you would put on a little of the same false pretence, then, Miss Mary," he said. "We ought to have been off long ago."

A general bustle now ensued, of rising from table and drawing on of gloves, and the party left the room in a body. As they emerged through the low door into the open air, they paused, with a simultaneous cry of astonishment and delight at the beauty of the scene before them.

They were in the heart of the Blue-Ridge Mountains; the house where they had passed the night being nestled at the very foot of one grand, frowning patriarch, whose rockcrowned summit towered more than a thousand feet above the lowly roof; while within a stone's-throw in front, separated from the little dwelling only by a crystal stream that flashed by in a rapid succession of cascades, rose the almost perpendicular base of another yet loftier peak-the mountain they were preparing to ascend.

Thanks to the delay caused by the sluggards of the party, they were much later than they had intended to be; the sun was risen, and the mists had dispersed sufficiently to

stretching before them for miles and miles, until the gaze grew weary as it attempted to reach the far-off and indistinct horizon. It was only the mist resting on the valley beneath; but so perfect was the illusion that Messrs. Godwin and Fitzgerald declared they could scarcely refrain from plunging in to take a morning bath.

"I have often heard of this appearance," said Mr. Denham, "but I had no idea that the deception could be so complete. Anybody who had not been prepared for it, would swear that was the ocean. It's wonderful, I declare!"

"Look, ladies, yonder is a sail!" cried Fitzgerald, suddenly. Don't you see? I can actually distinguish, not only the sail itself, but the hull of the vessel."

"And there is a dark speck near it which must be a boat," said Miss Hayes, laughingly. "I wonder what it is? They were not there a moment ago."

"The sail is a point of rock, and the boat the top of a tree," said Godwin, in his slow, matter-of-fact tone. "The mist is sinking, and a breeze rising down below there, I think. And there comes the sun. He'll soon turn the ocean into dry land.".

And, in fact, the sun, which had now mounted high enough to peep over the right shoulder of the mountain, at this moment poured a flood of gold over the valley.

Mr. Denham and his companions stood for some time watching the marvellous change that followed. Down, down sank the blue waters, and up rose a range of purple mountains where, an instant before, ocean and sky had met on the verge of the dim, distant horizon, leaving for a moment a vast inland sea. But it was only for a moment. Still the wa"abated from the face of the earth." Pale-green hills and valleys began to appear all around the shores of the sea; little islets

ters

peeped up in every direction upon its bosom, Ah, the illusion is over! Waves have turned to mist; and even that is rolling rapidly away. And now the valley lies green and smiling in the sunshine.

"Well," said Mr. Denham, drawing a deep breath, we must be starting.-Come, Mary, Henrietta, get into the carriage. I am going back to the house a minute, to speak to—"

The rest of his sentence was inaudible as he walked away. Henrietta looked round for Ellerby, not having heard his voice in the chorus of admiration which had been sounding ever since they came out of the house. He was a little distance off, leaning on his horse (it was Mr. Denham's opinion that the gentleman labored under a physical inability to stand alone, so invariably did he manage to find some support to rest against), and she was chagrined to perceive that he looked bored-unequivocally bored. With a sudden sense of indignation, she turned to his rival, Mr. Godwin, and extended her hand for him to put her into the carriage, which her cousin had already entered; nor would she permit herself to glance again toward the object of her displeasure, making Mr. Godwin happy by bestowing her attention exclusively upon him. But the poor man's felicity was of short duration.

"What do you say, Miss Henrietta, to a ride, instead of a drive, this morning?" said a voice behind her; and, turning, her momentary anger was quite disarmed by the sight of Ellerby's handsome, smiling face. "Hal will take your place in the carriage if you consent, while I ride his horse, and you mine. What do you say?"

"I am sure you would find the exchange pleasant," said Fitzgerald, eagerly, before she had time to reply.

"So would you!" thought Henrietta; but she only laughed, and said, "I should like it, but-" She hesitated, then added, suddenly, "But I had forgotten-I have no habit with me. And, pray, do you expect me to ride on your saddle, Mr. Ellerby?"

"There is a side-saddle up at the house, yonder. I saw it hanging in the room we oc cupied last night-you remember, Hal? And, as to a habit, just get our hostess to show you how to arrange your shawl on the saddle in rustic style. Surely that will do. Won't you come?"

"Here is papa. Let us see what he says about it."

Mr. Denham said, "Nonsense!" to the proposal at first, but finally condescended to give a reluctant consent rather than be detained longer from starting, to argue the point, and Henrietta alighted from the carriage.

Mary, please see if I did not leave my salts on the seat by you," she said to her cousin.-"Don't you admire my providence, Mr. Godwin, in remembering to bring it on such an expedition as this?"

Mr. Godwin, who had been an interested but not pleased auditor of the late discussion, murmured some words, of course, in reply, and then walked off in a very bad humor to mount his horse; while Mr. Denham could not forbear saying, as he handed the smelling-bottle out of the carriage-window to her,

"Yes, it was very well you brought it; for, if you don't want it yourself, I am sure your carpet-knight will need it before he gets halfway up the mountain."

Henrietta colored, and her father regretted having vented his irritation in such a speech, when he saw how much he had pained her. "But she deserves it, for tolerating such a puppy!" he thought. And then he looked at Godwin, who was riding on in front, and sighed -for Godwin was the son-in-law of his desire. If it had been possible for him just at that moment to have looked into that gentleman's thoughts, he might have been both surprised and offended to find him saying to himself, with the decision of a man who has well considered a question, "I'll give it up!"

"What is the matter?" inquired Ellerby of Henrietta, as they walked their horses slowly down a steep, rocky descent. "Why do you look so grave?"

"I am afraid your joining our party was a mistake," she answered. "This sort of life don't suit you. I wonder you do not invent some excuse for escape, you evidently find it so fatiguing."

"I do find scrambling up and down mountains, being always on the strain of admiration over the scenery, and, above all, the horrible hours we keep, extremely fatiguing. I hate bodily exertion, I confess. But I love

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a hypocrite. After that I let alone trying to please him. I consider him to have acted very unfairly toward me, and you ought to remember this when you feel inclined to reproach me-"

"I will not reproach you again," she interrupted, despondently. "I have lost all hope. I think "-she went on, with quivering lip-"I think we shall have to give each other up."

"Give each other up!" exclaimed Ellerby, with passionate indignation. "You are jesting. You cannot mean that you will yield to such tyranny."

She put out her hand with a silencing motion, and said, in a firm though very sad tone: "I cannot marry against papa's will-that I have told you over and over again—and I am convinced that he will never consent to my marrying you. Would it not be better, then, to do at once what we shall have to do eventually resign ourselves to separa

tion?"

Ellerby's eyes flashed, and he burst into a torrent of reproach, remonstrance, and entreaty, which, however, was very suddenly stopped as an abrupt turn in the road brought them in sight of the carriage just entering the stream, which here spread out into a wide, shallow river; nor did he have opportunity to resume the conversation at that time. It was not until, after leaving the horses at the foot of the mountain, they had "You must see that you are not gaining made half the ascent, and halted to take ground with papa." luncheon, that he could venture to relieve his impatience by recurring to the broken thread of their late discussion, which he did without preface or apology.

you. And so I came, and so I mean to stay."

"How can I help that? He has such a rooted prejudice against me that he sees every thing I do with jaundiced eye."

"Yes, he is prejudiced against you; but can you assert that the prejudice is not mutual. He thinks you-"

"It is you, not I, that have made a mistake," he said, vehemently, though in a low

tone.

"If you would let Mr. Denham understand at once that our engagement is a fixed fact, not merely, as he wishes to believe, a possibility, he would not-"

"This

"Hush!" she exclaimed, softly. is no time or place for such a subject. With such a scene as this before you, how can you think of any thing else?"

"A puppy," said Ellerby, with a slight laugh, as she hesitated. "I am aware of the fact. An effeminate puppy, who cares for nothing in this world but his own ease,' was the flattering remark about me which I heard him make to your cousin yesterday, when he did not know that I was within ear-shot. That is his opinion of me; and I think him-don't look as if you expect me to say something very disrespectful—I think him a very unreasonable I may say an exceedingly imprac-ing, ticable-old gentleman."

"There is just about as much truth in the one accusation as in the other."

"You mean that you agree, with him in considering me a puppy?" he asked, with a smile.

"Quite as much as I agree with you in calling him unreasonable. If he had been 8, he would not have consented to your joining us."

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"He thought I would make a good foil to Godwin."

What an idea!"

"When we first started from home, I did every thing in my power to render myself agreeable to Mr. Denham, for I accepted in perfect good faith the tacit agreement that he would give me a fair trial, which was implied in his suffering me to join his party in the character of your avowed suitor. And what was the result of my efforts? Why, his manner showed me plainly that he despised me as

They were standing on a plateau far up the side of the mountain, with the richest of emerald sward beneath their feet, and extend

smooth and level as a billiard-table, along the side of a tall, jagged cliff, for twenty yards or more, to the edge of a natural stone basin, from which a flood of crystal water poured over a rounded swell of the mountain to the valley below in a torrent of sparkling foam.

Hundreds of feet beneath them lay spread out a prospect simply ravishing in loveliness and grandeur; range beyond range of hills and mountains, while in their midst was set a green, fertile valley, that looked like a glimpse of fairy-land when contrasted with the wildly-rugged scenery around. It was the same valley they had watched early in the morning as the sun rent away its veil of mist; but, seen from & different point of view, and at a much greater elevation, the prospect was much more extensive. This elevation, too, gave the singular sensation of standing, as it were, in mid-air, and looking abroad into space. The eye ranged round a level radius of blue ether-a " vasty deep" of heaven, in which not a speck, not the slightest vapor,

broke the effect produced upon the mind of immensity-infinity.

Henrietta had approached so near to the edge of the plateau that Ellerby attempted to draw her back, as he said: "Pray don't stand so close to the brink of the precipice. You might become suddenly giddy."

"There is no danger of that," she answered; "I have very steady nerves. Just let me look down for an instant. You need not be alarmed; I have not the slightest inclination to spring over, and many people have, it seems, when standing over such an abyss. Good Heavens! how awful it would be to find one's self going down, down—”

He drew her hastily and decidedly back. "You will find yourself doing so, if you stand here much longer!" he exclaimed. "Luncheon is ready, I think," he added, glad of an excuse to get her away.

She glanced round, and, seeing that there was a general gathering toward the other end of the plateau, where, at the side of the water, Shadrach had established his commissary department, did not oppose Ellerby's movement thither.

As they went, they looked up for the first time at the rock, which rose almost perpendicularly to a height of nearly a hundred feet above the level on which they stood a wall of living green. From numerous fissures seaming it in all directions, water gushed or trickled forth-at some places in jets as thick as a man's arm; in others, drop by drop; and, as there was a plentiful deposit of earth on the ledges and in the deep crevices that abounded, the whole surface, thus kept constantly moist, was one mass of luxuriant vegetation. Mosses and ferns of every shade in the gamut of green, brown, yellow, and purple tints, trailing and clustering vines of all kinds, shrubs large and small, green and flowering, were intermingled with a grace and harmony of arrangement which only Nature's "cunning hand" could have accomplished; while, as a crowning adornment to its rugged beauty, an immense pine-tree grew out of a Icleft forty feet from the ground, and, after curving its great, brown stem into a very picturesque (that is to say, a very erratic) right angle, shot straight upward, its heavy branches pressing closely against the surface, and its sugar-loaf crest just reaching to a level with the top of the cliff.

Miss Denham paused.

"The view must be finer from the top of that rock than it is here, even," she said. "As soon as I have finished luncheon, I am going up there-don't be apprehensive; I shall not ask you to go with me, if that is what you fear," she added, laughingly.

"That is not what I fear, as you must know," answered he, seriously.

"What is the matter, then?"

"I am really uneasy at the heedlessness with which you venture into very dangerous places. If you go, as you say, I must insist on your letting me accompany you."

"I could not think of such a thing," answered she, decidedly. "Since you would come with us, you must accept and endure as best you can the unavoidable fatigue and boredom of the excursion; but I cannot reconcile it to my conscience to allow you to

take an unnecessary amount of exercise simply for the sake of a view over which you would yawn."

"Henrietta!" he cried, warmly, almost indignantly, "why is it that you seem to delight in "

She pressed his arm warningly-they were now within ear-shot of the party-and he was obliged to swallow his next words along with the chagrin he felt at being denied their utterance, and present an unruffled face to the several pairs of eyes that looked up at their approach.

Looked up literally, for it was a regular picnic repast; the company being reclined on the grass, around a well-spread table-cloth. Mr. Denham enjoyed the distinction of a seat on a bear-skin which had been brought for his accommodation, and the young ladies were equally fortunate; but the three young gentlemen had to content themselves with Nature's covering to Mother Earth-the soft, green velvet sward.

Everybody seemed hungry, and everybody was in good spirits, so that the clatter of knives and forks, and the clinking of glasses, mingled pleasantly with the lively conversation and gay laughter around. Ellerby hoped that Henrietta had forgotten her proposed expedition; but he was mistaken.

"Good people all," she said, suddenly starting up before any one else had half finished luncheon, "if you will excuse me, I am going to the top of that rock, to see the prospect. And I should like to see you all as you are sitting here; so pray don't any of you move.-Mr. Ellerby!"--for at this instant he moved-" Mr. Ellerby, don't you mean to oblige me by sitting still?"

If you are going to the top of that rock, I hope you will let me go with you," he answered." I can't think that it would be safe for her to venture alone."

The last sentence was addressed to Mr. Denham, to whom he turned with a look of earnest appeal-an appeal which would cer tainly have been heeded had it come from any one else. But Mr. Denham was inclined to suspect that a quarrel between the lovers was imminent, if not already in progress. Henrietta had obviously been provoked by the late appearance at breakfast of her cavalier; and he had shrewdly noted that when the equestrians had approached the carriage for the first time after starting, they were both looking unusually flushed and excited; he was sure there had been some passages of words not strictly amatory between them; nor did it escape his observation that there was a decided difference of opinion between them at the present moment. Far be it from him, thought the anxious papa, to interpose, either directly or indirectly, in the prevention of that consummation he so devoutly desired-a lover's quarrel. If the tacit engagement now existing was but once broken off, he was sanguine that he would be able to prevent its ever being on again. So, instead of interfering decidedly to prohibit what at another time he would have considered a rash folly on the part of his daughter, he only looked up and said, carelessly: "Why do you want to go before the rest of us do, my dear? I am not sure that it is safe for you to be climb

ing about without a guide. You might get lost."

"Get lost between here and the top of the rock!" laughed she. "Why, papa, didn't you observe the road that leads up to it? We left it just before turning the corner of the rock to come here. It is as plain as possible; I could not get lost, or hurt either, if I tried."

Saying which, she walked quickly away, without further comment from anybody, and the ripple of conversation, which had been interrupted for a moment, was immediately resumed. Only Ellerby remained silent-his eye following her retreating figure with an expression of grave disapprobation, almost displeasure; while his lips were compressed in a manner that Mr. Denham thought very promising for the prospect of the quarrel he was so anxious to promote. When Henrietta reached the corner of the rock, she paused, glanced back with a smile, kissed her hand, and disappeared.

"Don't look so much offended, Mr. Ellerby," said Mary Hayes, in a low tone (he was sitting next her); "I am sure Henrietta did not know it would be so annoying to you, or she would not have gone."

"I am not offended, but uneasy," he an swered, in the same tone. "She is so rash."

"Why, what possible danger could there be? The road is as plain as A, B, C. I think you are very fanciful."

"I hope so. But you must admit that discretion or we will say prudence-is not the virtue for which young ladies are generally most distinguished."

He smiled as he made the last remark, and joined in the general conversation; but his attention was at least equally divided between that and the point of rock overhead, where he expected to see Henrietta appear.

It was at least twenty minutes-more, perhaps before he saw the rim of her straw hat emerge above the outline of cliff that cut sharply against the cloudless sky. First her head, then the graceful fall of her shoulders, came in sight, and then her whole figure stood in broad relief on the clear, blue ocean of air. Certainly she looked exquisitely pretty and graceful, as she threw her hat back from her forehead, and waved her handkerchief in triumph. Ellerby felt more disposed to indulge his admiration, as he noticed that she kept at a very prudent distance from the edge of the cliff-not seeming at all inclined to the rashness he had condemned an hour before. She was so almost perpendicularly, though obliquely, above them, that it was not easy to look up long at a time-particularly as she did not, like themselves, enjoy the advantage of being in the shade, but stood in the full sunlight.

"You can't imagine how grand the view is from here!" she said, in quite an elevated tone-for they seemed to her very far off. "And I never saw a prettier picture than you make sitting there." She had some pebbles in her hand, and began tossing them carelessly over the brink of the cliff-trying if she could shy them clear of the tree which was immediately in front of where she stood. "You must come by this place in making the Won't you, papa ?"

ascent.

"If it is not too much out of the way," responded Mr. Denham, in stentorian voice, looking up for an instant, and then blinking very much as he hastily withdrew his eyes, and proceeded to help himself to a final glass of wine. As he sipped it slowly, with appreciative gusto, he chanced to remember Ellerby's warning against Henrietta's solitary expedition, and, exerting himself to look up once more, he called to her: "Don't stand near the edge there, child."

"No, papa-I will sit down and wait for you," she replied.

66 'Well, it is time for us to be moving," said Mr. Denham, unfastening the napkin that was attached to his button-hole.-"Shadrach, did you fill my flask this morning?"

"Yes, sir; you'll find it in your pocket." The old gentleman paused as he was about to rise, and put his hand into his pocket to be certain that the flask was there. Just as he had satisfied himself on this point, he was startled as he had never in his life been startled before, by a half-stifled, gurgling cry, followed by a sort of crashing sound in the air above. Instinctively he looked up at the cliff-and the place where he had seen his daughter standing the instant before, was vacant! Only the grand, silent rock, and the deep-blue sky, were there.

Bewildered, as well as shocked, the old man turned his dazed vision to his companions around. They were all gazing at the cliff, with different expressions of the same feeling-horror. The two guides, who had been taking what they called their "bite," sitting on the grass a few yards from the party, were staring up, their heads thrown far back, their countenances full of astounded awe; Shadrach's gingerbread-colored face had turned of an ashen paleness, and he stood with parted lips, and eyes that seemed starting from their sockets. Miss Hayes, Godwin, and Fitzgerald, sat as if transfixed-with white faces and straining eyes directed to the place where Henrietta had been; Ellerby was hastily pulling off his boots.

It was the slight noise made by his throwing the first one from his hand, that broke the spell which had fallen on them all. Godwin and Fitzgerald started up from the ground; while Miss Hayes, with a shriek of agonized terror, seized Ellerby's arm with both her hands, crying:

"Where is she? What has become of

her?"

"She fell into the tree," he answered, mechanically, as, shaking off the grasp without ceremony, he gave a last tug at his remaining boot and sock, succeeded in getting them off, and sprang to his feet. Flinging off his coat as rapidly as he had rid himself of his boots, one or two bounds brought him to the base of the rock immediately beneath the tree. There he stood still for an instant, looking up; but he could neither see nor hear any thing of Henrietta: the dense green foliage above him was perfectly motionless. Yet he felt confident that she must be lodged-perhaps in a state of insensibility-among the branches. He had seen her sit down just after speaking to her father; then he had seen her move, still sitting, a little nearer to the edge of the rock, and bend forward to

gather a cluster of flowers; and then a sort of haze had come over his sight, as he felt rather than perceived that she was losing her balance; a blurred, indistinct vision of wildly outstretched hands faded from his view in a mist of midnight blackness; he heard a halfshriek drowned in a heavy crash; the darkness passed from before his eyes as suddenly as it had come, and he saw that she had disappeared. For a second of time, he had been like the rest, paralyzed-looking in dumb despair at the spot where she was not. But, almost before recovering his suspended breath, life flashed back through his veinspower to his mind; and his resolution was taken. In moments of desperate excitement, it often seems as if man's spirit communicates to his body a capability to achieve that which, under ordinary circumstances, would simply prove a physical impossibility; and Ellerby prepared as confidently to scale the rock before him as if it were a mere matter of walking up-stairs. He had placed one foot in the crevice of a rock, and, with a spring upward to catch with his hand the girled root of a tough-fibred vine, was about to commence his perilous ascent, when Godwin, seizing his arm, arrested his progress.

"Good Heavens, Mark!" he exclaimed, hurriedly, "you surely are not going to try to elimb that rock? Why, you will fall, to a dead certainty, if you attempt it-and kill yourself without doing Miss Henrietta any good. We must think of some safer way. These mountaineers ought to know what to do. Get down, and we'll call them."

"Impossible!" answered Ellerby. "Let go my arm, George-I must go! There is not a moment to lose. Let go my arm!"

He spoke with such quiet resolution that Godwin involuntarily obeyed. Drawing back, he and Fitzgerald exchanged glances, as, without another word, Ellerby began to mount the perpendicular face of the cliff.

"We had better stand under, to try and break his fall," said Fitzgerald.

Godwin nodded, and shoulder to shoulder they stood, directly beneath the adventurous chimber, so that they could receive him in their arms if he fell. He did not fall. Laboredly, but much more rapidly than would have been conceived possible, he went upward-in a very zigzag course-turning from side to side as he found a crevice, projection of rock, a vine or a shrub, by which to hold either with his hands or feet. The mountaineers drew near and watched with mingled astonishment and admiration; while Godwin and Fitzgerald, though not at all surprised (for, having known Ellerby all their lives, they knew that under the sybaritic exterior which it was his pleasure or his affectation to wear, was concealed as daring a spirit as ever lived), were in momentary apprehension that his strength and endurance must fail. It was evident that the muscular effort he was exerting was intense, and probably the physical pain he suffered not less, as they could see that his hands and feet were bleeding profusely-their own persons, indeed, being aprinkled with the blood that dripped from his feet every time he withdrew them from one resting place to take another step.

He had gone up to the right of the tree,

and was now on a line with the trunk, where it shot out at a right angle from the cleft in which it grew. But there was a space of at least four feet between-four feet of smooth surface, covered only by moss-with not a crevice or ledge which might serve for foothold. He paused, seemed to consider, turned still farther to the right, and continued to ascend until he came to where one of the lower limbs of the tree swept the rock with its outer branches. The limb itself was some little distance from the rock, but he leaned back until his shoulders rested against it, and, with infinite difficulty, managed to twist himself round, and clasp it firmly with his arms. Then he swung his feet loose from their support, and hung suspended-a shower of blooddrops coming down on the upturned faces of the two men who stood shuddering beneath. Still suspended, he moved along the limb toward the stem of the tree for five or six feet, when, by a sudden, desperate effort, he threw up his feet horizontally, after the manner of expert climbers of trees, caught them around the limb, and, with a quick motion, whirled himself over from the under to the upper side, where, with arms and knees embracing it, he lay on his face perfectly motionless for some minutes-two slender streams of blood dripping from his hands and feet.

"Can nothing be done?" cried Godwin, in a tone very different from his usual deliberate drawl. "My God! it is horrible to stand here idle, and see him killing himself! -for if this goes on much longer, he must faint from loss of blood, and fall then, of course. What can we do?"

"God knows!" returned Fitzgerald, nervously clinching his hands. "Perhaps the guides can suggest something," he added, hastily turning to them.

The only suggestion they could make was that, if they had ropes, it might be possible to let down one of their number from the top of the rock into the tree, and then to haul him, Ellerby, and the lady, up that way. But ropes had not been fetched, and it appeared, on inquiry, that it would require three hours, at the very least, for one of the men to go to the nearest house for them, and return. Still, as this seemed the only chance for all agreed in the opinion that Ellerby could do nothing in the way of getting the lady down unassisted-one of the men was dispatched instantly for ropes and further assistance, with the most urgent exhortations to haste, and munificent promises of reward.

The two young men turned from this brief colloquy, with the intention of calling to Ellerby to keep quiet and wait the assistance for which they had sent. But before they could speak, he lifted his head, raised himself on his hands and knees, caught round the stem of the tree, and pulled himself to his feet. Afraid of startling him if they spoke, they kept silence, and watched again with the most painful apprehension, as, with apparently renewed energy, he began to mount the tree. Before he had gone far, he was almost lost to their sight, the thick foliage very much excluding the light from what, in contrast to the glare of the surrounding sky, looked to their dazzled eyes like a deep green cavern. A gleam of his white shirt was visible once

or twice-but even that soon disappeared, and they could see nothing but the shaking of the branches beyond which he had vanished. This went on for some little time, accompanied by a crushing sound on the side next the rock, and they thought that once they heard a faint scream. It was very shortly after this that Ellerby reappeared, descending as he had gone up. He established himself in a fork made by one of the largest limbs, leaned over, and, looking down, called to them:

"She was a little stunned at first by her fall, and is a good deal bruised, I fear—but not seriously hurt, she thinks. I suppose there is no rope to be had? -none was brought with us, I mean?"

"One of the guides has gone for ropes and assistance," was the reply.

"How soon is he likely to return?" "Not for two or three hours, I'm sorry to say," answered Godwin.

"That won't do," said Ellerby. "Henrietta's strength will fail if she is not relieved very soon. You must make a rope as quickly as possible. Cut the two bear-skins, into strips, the table-cloth (there are some napkins and towels which will do also)—take every thing you can find-my coat, your coats, if necessary-and twist a strong rope at least fifty feet long. Don't lose time! I will tie it around her waist, and lower her to the ground by it."

"But how are we to get it to you? asked Godwin, while Fitzgerald started off to set about the work at once.

"While you are making the rope, I will prepare a string to draw it up by. Be sure of one thing, George-that the knots are tied securely."

"I will. I'm afraid you are badly used up yourself, Mark! Let down your string as soon as you can, and I'll fill my flask and send up."

"Do. But, for Heaven's sake, make haste about the rope!"

Call me

"We will," answered he again. when you are ready for the flask." Without waiting for a reply, he hurried over to the group, who were already busy with the bear-skins.

Miss Hayes was sobbing hysterically, but she was holding one of the skins to keep it steady, while Fitzgerald, on his knees upon it, was cutting it into strips with his penknife. Mr. Denham (whose florid complexion had changed to sallow pale) was assisting the mountaineer with the other skin; and Shadrach had the table-cloth in hand. Godwin's first care was to fill his flask from one of the bottles which Shadrach had tumbled unceremoniously on to the grass when clearing the cloth a minute before; then, putting it into his pocket, he joined the rope-makers.

For amateurs in the business, and considering that leather and linen are not very well adapted to being twisted together, they got on famously. Before their task was half completed, Ellerby called for the flask; and when Godwin hastily answered the summons, he found a red, knotted string, dangling down to a level with his face, on examination of which he shook his head rather doubtfully. Ellerby had cut off both his shirt-sleeves at the