echoed terribly in that circle of
mountain wildness!

A cloud of dust rolled in fearful mockery where one moment before had
stood the proud pinnacle. An enormous mass of rocks fell into the lake
below, and the vapors rose in a rival cloud. High in the firmament they
curled and twisted, their wreathing forms together telling a woful tale
of destruction.

We forgot our own danger in watching all our grandeur dashed to
nothingness.

Destruction as it was, it was grand!

But Grilly! Where was he? "Ah, Grilly, Grilly!" cried I, "I fear he is
lost!"

"Come, come!" said Pippity. "Where's Grilly? Find Grilly! Quick,
quick!"

But there was some rough country to get over. Gaps, masses of uprooted
trees, rocks, earth and vegetation mingled in confusion.

At last we arrived at home--no, not home! Nothing but a heap of ruins!

And where was Grilly? We searched, but found him not. We called, and
called again; but answer there came none.

Pippity, with a shrill and deafening cry uttered ceaselessly: "Grilly!
Grilly! Grilly! Grilly!"

But answer there came none.

And all the next day we sought, and still poor Pippity cried, "Grilly!
Grilly!"

But the dead, the lost, answer not.

* * * * *

A home we had no longer. Where once stood magnificence, ruin now stared
us in the face.

"Pippity!" I said to poor Polly, "we will leave this once glorious
spot. Our home is desolate. It is home no longer. Let us seek new
scenes in other lands."

"Where shall we go?" asked Pippity--and if a parrot could shed tears he
would have shed them.

"We will go to the abodes of men. We will go among civilized people."

"I, too, Frank. I, too! Call Gr----!"

"Say no more, Pippity! Strive to forget."

For seventeen days we traversed the mountains, picking up a scanty
subsistence by the way. Pippity was considerably frightened by the
condors that really seemed to threaten us when we reached great
elevations; and I was astonished at the remains of the once stupendous
works of the ancient dwellers in this land. Bridges stretching from
mountain to mountain, over immense, deep valleys, attested the
knowledge and power of that singular race.

Later, we began to meet people; a hut here and another there, with
miles between. Pippity was quite at a loss to know what to make of such
persons as we met. When two or more happened to be conversing together,
it was utterly incomprehensible to him how they could unde