and road, and he had often heard John and Marten talk of those elm
trees, for they were called the "Nine Elms," and yet Marten had said
there were only eight now, and whenever he had gone to Mr. Jameson's
with his papa and mamma, and John who drove them, John had kept the
carriage waiting under the elms, and he used to put Reuben out of the
carriage amidst the trees, to run in and out amongst them, touching one
after the other, whilst John taught him to count them, saying one, two,
three, four, and so on. So Reuben knew he must pass the elm trees, and
as he was just awake, and the morning fresh and pleasant, his small feet
carried him along some way nicely, and even swiftly, and for a few
minutes, they were not many, all seemed promising, and the inexperienced
one believed he should soon be at his home. After the clump of trees,
the baby so confidently considered he was in the right way, that when he
came to a place where two roads joined the one up which he had ran, he
never looked about him, fancying they must both go to his home, and not
yet being weary, he took, as might be feared, the wrong turn, and soon
he heard distinctly the roaring of a cascade, much famed in those parts,
as it dashed over the rocks in the direction in which he was going Now
Reuben knew the sound of the cascade, for he had lived near it all his
young life, and he knew it was not far from his home; but he did not
consider that he never passed it on his way from his father's house to
Mr. Jameson's, but still, not mistrusting the road he was going, he ran
along till he suddenly found by a turn of the lane, that he was in full
front of the stream. The child however was not disconcerted by this, and
the fresh air meeting him, and for the moment raising his spirits, he
stepped on over the loose stones brought down at different times by the
waters, boldly, and even gaily, though his course was impeded by the
unevenness of the way. He must have stepped on some distance, when all
of a sudden he was unable to proceed farther along the path, by the
jutting out of a rock into the stream, for the water was pouring down
rapidly and more profusely than was general, for there had been heavy
rains in the mountains, and thus the bed of the torrent was fully
covered, its width being very inconsiderable beneath the rock. The spot
was one wholly unknown to the child, and surely it was a terrible sight
to meet the eye of a babe, who hitherto had not known what it was