ound, just beneath him, a long line of large troughs,
open at both ends, and overlapping each other like shingles. It extended
entirely down the side of the mountain, and to his horror Eric saw at its
foot a lake.

"O, Johnny, Johnny! my dear little cousin! And uncle Charlie, too--they
will surely be killed!" he cried, in agony. For he knew at once that they
had gone down a timber slide, and was afraid they would be drowned in the
lake.

And now I suppose I must tell you what a timber slide is.

The Black Forest Mountains are covered with large and valuable trees,
which are felled and sold by their owners; and as it would be decidedly
inconvenient to take horses and carts up the mountain, and utterly
impossible to get them down with a heavy load of those giant trees with
sound necks, an ingenious Swiss invented the cheap and rapid way of
getting the trees off the mountain by means of a slide, formed of immense
troughs lapped together, and terminating in the lake, where the heavy logs
are chained together and floated to a railway or wharf, just as they are
done in our own country by the loggers of the Maine forests and other
woody regions.

Of course a descent in one of these slides, under ordinary circumstances,
would be extremely dangerous to human life and limb. But it fortunately
happened that neither the doctor, Johnny, nor Jack were seriously injured,
for the slide had been disused for some time, and in consequence of an
accident, somewhat similar to Johnny's, had been partially removed, and a
high, soft bank of sand lay at its new terminus.

Johnny and Jack were pitched violently into this, and rescued from their
very uncomfortable position by a party of English travellers encamped near
by.

Many were the exclamations uttered at the marvellous and sudden entrance
of our young friend upon the quiet beauties of the twilight scene, and
bewildered Johnny scarcely knew whether to laugh or cry.

His first anxiety was for Jack, but the English gentleman who drew him
from the sand-bank would pay no attention to the horse until he was
convinced that Johnny was unhurt. Assured about this, he patted and
soothed poor frightened Jack, and walked him carefully over the soft
greensward, to see if he appeared at all lame; and then Johnny was
delighted enough to hear the horse pronounced all right.

Johnny had several pretty bad bruises, which the Englishman, who was a
physician, dressed for him.

By the time this was d