"And how am I to get back?" said I, in a forlorn voice to the old woman,
who stood staring at me on the other side. "Ah! I see there is a bridge
below."

"But you can't go over the bridge, there's a gate on it; master keeps
the key himself. You are in the private grounds now. Dear, dear! the
squire would be so angry if he knew. You must go back; and they'll see
you from the house! Dear me! dear, dear! What shall I do? Can't you leap
back again?"

Moved by these piteous exclamations, and not wishing to subject the
poor old lady to the wrath of a master evidently an unfeeling tyrant, I
resolved to pluck up courage and releap the dangerous abyss.

"Oh, yes, never fear," said I, therefore. "What's been done once ought
to be done twice, if needful. Just get out of my way, will you?"

And I receded several paces over a ground much too rough to favor my run
for a spring. But my heart knocked against my ribs. I felt that impulse
can do wonders where preparation fails.

"You had best be quick, then," said the old woman.

Horrid old woman! I began to esteem her less. I set my teeth, and was
about to rush on, when a voice close beside me said,--

"Stay, young man; I will let you through the gate."

I turned round sharply, and saw close by my side, in great wonder that
I had not seen him before, a man, whose homely (but not working) dress
seemed to intimate his station as that of the head-gardener, of whom my
guide had spoken. He was seated on a stone under a chestnut-tree, with
an ugly cur at his feet, who snarled at me as I turned.

"Thank you, my man," said I, joyfully. "I confess frankly that I was
very much afraid of that leap."

"Ho! Yet you said, what can be done once can be done twice."

"I did not say it could be done, but ought to be done."

"Humph! That's better put."

Here the man rose; the dog came and smelt my legs, and then, as if
satisfied with my respectability, wagged the stump of his tail.

I looked across the waterfall for the old woman, and to my surprise saw
her hobbling back as fast as she could. "Ah!" said I, laughing, "the
poor old thing is afraid you'll tell her master,--for you're the head
gardener, I suppose? But I am the only person to blame. Pray say that,
if you mention the circumstance at all!" and I drew out half a crown,
which I proffered to my new conductor.

He put back the money with a low "Humph! not amiss." Then, in a louder
voice, "No occasion to bribe me, young man; I saw