son believed this to be uninhabited; and the event proved
either that he was right, or that the inmates were friendly. After
several false starts, they decided on making the attempt on the 1st of
May.

In the twenty-four hours preceding, the reverend's excitable nerves had
been wound up to something above concert pitch. He seemed to hold the
real risk--discovery and the bullet of a sentinel--very cheap; but,
magnifying imaginary difficulties after his own peculiar fashion, he had
come to look upon the roof as a pass of peril, only to be accomplished
by preterhuman agility and steadiness of brain. His fellow-adventurer,
who from first to last bore himself with a gay recklessness good to
behold, laughed all such forebodings utterly to scorn. I tried the
gentler tone of grave argument, demonstrating that a _glissade_ on
shingles in dry weather was next to impossible, and that the ridge, once
gained, was nearly as safe traveling as an ordinary mountain-path. The
parson's armor of meek obstinacy was proof alike to reason and ridicule;
he waxed not wroth, and was thankful for any suggestion; but, when asked
to act accordingly, ever fell back on one plaintive formula--"I am no
gymnast,"--after the fashion of that exasperating child who met all the
Poet's questions and objections with the refrain of

Master, we are seven.

These visionary terrors would have been of little moment, if they had
not induced his reverence to persist in the use of certain machines,
which were more than likely to bring the whole adventure to grief. These
were a sort of sandals, studded with sharp nails, that could be fitted
either to hands or feet, and no words can describe the proud
satisfaction with which they were regarded by their simple-minded
constructor. Though I saw it was almost useless, I tried hard to
persuade him that, for any sort of climbing (where neither ice nor sharp
edges were to be feared), no engines could be so safe as bare feet and
hands; that it would be much harder to recover himself, if a slip ensued
from any strap giving way; finally, that if the contrivance answered
perfectly in every other way, there was certain risk of what was most to
be avoided--sharp, sudden noises, likely to strike strangely on the
sentinel's ear. My friend heard me out quite patiently, thanked me very
cordially, and then--took his own way.

Everything was ready by midnight; but the start was not made till three,
A. M., at which hour the moon w