P'rhaps if I was to say it looked like the mould that
that 'are very peak was cast in, afore it was cold and
stiff, and sot up on eend, I should come as near the mark
as any thing I know on.

"Well away she slid, feet and hands out, all flat on her
face, right away, arter her pike staff. Most people would
have ginn it up as gone goose, and others been so frightened
as not to do any thing at all; or at most only jist to
think of a prayer, for there was no time to say one.

"But not so Lot's 'wife. She was of a conquerin' natur'.
She never gave nothin' up, till she couldn't hold on no
longer. She was one o' them critters that go to bed
mistress, and rise master; and just as she got to the
edge of the precipice, her head hangin' over, and her
eyes lookin' down, and she all but ready to shoot out
and launch away into bottomless space, the ten commandments
brought her right short up. Oh, she sais, the sudden joy
of that sudden stop swelled her heart so big, she thought
it would have bust like a byler; and, as it was, the
great endurin' long breath she drew, arter such an alfired
escape, almost killed her at the ebb, it hurt her so."

"But," said Mr. Hopewell, "how did the ten commandments
save her? Do you mean that figuratively, or literally.
Was it her reliance on providence, arising from a conscious
observance of the decalogue all her life, or was it a
book containing them, that caught against some thing,
and stopt her descent. It is very interesting. Many a