I eagerly turned my eyes, but no one was visible. . . . The
station, indeed, which this new speaker seemed to occupy, was
inaccessible to man or beast.

If I were surprized at this second repetition of my words,
judge how much my surprise must have been augmented, when the same
calls were a third time repeated, and coming still in a new
direction. Five times was this ditty successively resounded, at
intervals nearly equal, always from a new quarter, and with little
abatement of its original distinctness and force.

A little reflection was sufficient to shew that this was no
more than an echo of an extraordinary kind. My terrors were
quickly supplanted by delight. The motives to dispatch were
forgotten, and I amused myself for an hour, with talking to these
cliffs: I placed myself in new positions, and exhausted my lungs
and my invention in new clamours.

The pleasures of this new discovery were an ample compensation
for the ill treatment which I expected on my return. By some
caprice in my father I escaped merely with a few reproaches. I
seized the first opportunity of again visiting this recess, and
repeating my amusement; time, and incessant repetition, could
scarcely lessen its charms or exhaust the variety produced by new
tones and new positions.

The hours in which I was most free from interruption and
restraint were those of moonlight. My brother and I occupied a
small room above the kitchen, disconnected, in some degree, with
the rest of the house. It was the rural custom to retire early to