ce separated my friends from me. How
could I get down that almost perpendicular rock, and how could they get
up to me? How could they know that I was there?

And now the specter of starvation rose up before me in strongest force.
Should I try to find my way back again?--once more attempt the
darkness? No! no! Too precious was the daylight. It would not do. And
what could be gained? I could not possibly live to reach the bottom!

The twilight rested serenely on the encircling range of mountain snow,
then faded sweetly from the darkening sky.

The stars are beacons of hope and faith. Under them I lay down and
slept.

It was a refreshing slumber that I had beneath an unclouded sky, and
when I awoke it was early dawn. The cool air was grateful; and so
charming seemed all nature that I forgot my hunger and the isolation of
my position. I began, too, to examine the situation. I had emerged from
the cavern into open day by reason of the sudden termination of the
wall which I had had so long on my right. There was left the inner wall
as before, now exposed and forming the exterior of the mountain. I
stood on a platform of rock about four feet square. Beyond was an angle
in the wall, and just then a step to a higher grade of flat rock also.
Then a considerable steepness of the narrow floor, and a bending to the
left, when it was lost to view behind the mass of perpendicular rock.
As the sun rose, I looked down toward the lake, which seemed to lie
almost directly beneath, so nearly perpendicular was the mountain on
that side. About six or seven hundred feet below me, I observed a bird
flying from point to point up the mountain. Soon it disappeared from
view. It had flown to the other side. Presently it re-appeared, still
circling and rising, now perching at one point, and now at another
higher up, then passing out of view again. At length it seemed to come
more directly upward; it rose more rapidly, and was continually in
sight.

It was a parrot. I heard its cry. I could see it distinctly.

"Pippity, Pippity!" I cried, "is that you?"

He gave one joyful scream, alighted on my shoulder, and then on my
hand, talking as fast as his tongue could run: "How d' ye do? How d' ye
do? Frank, Frank!"

"Food, food, Pippity!" I begged; and before I had finished the words he
flew down the abyss, screaming as he went. I followed him with my eyes
until the precipice below prevented my seeing him any longer.

It seemed to me a full hou