form of my companion, after being sustained for a moment by the
branches of the tree, sink through their frail support, and fall
headlong to the bottom. To my surprise and joy, however, he
recovered himself, and disentangling his limbs from the fractured
branches, he peered out from his leafy bed, and shouted lustily,
'Come on, my hearty there is no other alternative!' and with this
he ducked beneath the foliage, and slipping down the trunk, stood
in a moment at least fifty feet beneath me, upon the broad shelf
of rock from which sprung the tree he had descended.

What would I not have given at that moment to have been by his
side. The feat he had just accomplished seemed little less than
miraculous, and I could hardly credit the evidence of my senses
when I saw the wide distance that a single daring act had so
suddenly placed between us.

Toby's animating 'come on' again sounded in my ears, and dreading
to lose all confidence in myself if I remained meditating upon
the step, I once more gazed down to assure myself of the relative
bearing of the tree and my own position, and then closing my eyes
and uttering one comprehensive ejaculation of prayer, I inclined
myself over towards the abyss, and after one breathless instant
fell with a crash into the tree, the branches snapping and
cracking with my weight, as I sunk lower and lower among them,
until I was stopped by coming in contact with a sturdy limb.

In a few moments I was standing at the foot of the tree
manipulating myself all over with a view of ascertaining the
extent of the injuries I had received. To my surprise the only
effects of my feat were a few slight contusions too trifling to