ny moment and bear her away to Elysium.

As she stooped to free her skirt from a detaining thorn, she pointed
down the bank.

"There's some pretty sweet-gum leaves; I wish they weren't so far down."

"Where?" demanded Mr. Opp, rashly eager to prove his gallantry.

"'Way down over the edge; but you mustn't go, it's too steep."

"Not for me," said Mr. Opp, plunging boldly through the underbrush.

The tree grew at a sharp angle over the water, and the branches were so
far up that it was necessary to climb out a short distance in order to
reach them. Mr. Opp's soul was undoubtedly that of a knight-errant, but
his body, alas! was not. When he found himself astride the slender,
swaying trunk, with the bank dropping sharply to the river flowing
dizzily beneath him, he went suddenly and unexpectedly blind. Between
admiration for himself for ever having gotten there, and despair of ever
getting back, lay the present necessity of loosening his hold long
enough to break off a branch of the crimson leaves. He tried opening one
eye, but the effect was so terrifying that he promptly closed it. He
pictured himself, a few moments before, strolling gracefully along the
road conversing brilliantly upon divers subjects; then he bitterly
considered the present moment and the effect he must be producing upon
the young lady in the red cloak on the path above. He saw himself
clinging abjectly to the swaying tree-trunk, only waiting for his
strength or the tree to give away, before he should be plunged into the
waters below.

"That's a pretty spray," called the soft voice from above; "that one
above, to the left."

Mr. Opp, rallying all his courage, reached blindly out in the direction
indicated, and as he did so, he realized that annihilation was imminent.
Demonstrating a swift geometrical figure in the air, he felt himself
hurling through space, coming to an abrupt and awful pause when he
struck the earth. Perceiving with a thrill of surprise that he was still
alive, he cautiously opened his eyes. To his further amazement he found
that he had landed on his feet, unhurt, and that in his left hand he
held a long branch of sweet-gum leaves.

"Why, you skinned the cat, didn't you?" called an admiring voice from
above. "I was just wondering how you was ever going to get down."

Mr. Opp crawled up the slippery bank, his knees trembling so that he
could scarcely stand.

"Yes," he said, as he handed her the leaves; "those kind of athleti