n
become like one great school-house yard.

So, looking at the matter in all its various aspects, I think that we
may reasonably conclude that little girls, when they play out of
doors, are in more danger from horses, dogs, snakes, and bad company,
than of being attacked by Eagles, and the children may all look upon
the picture of the Eagle of the Alps and its baby prey without a
shudder on their own account.

CLIMBING MOUNTAINS.

[Illustration]

There is nothing which can give us grander ideas of Nature than to
stand on the top of a high Mountain. But it is very hard to get there.
And yet there are very few Mountains in the world which have not been
ascended by man.

For hundreds of years, Mont Blanc, that lofty peak of the Alps, was
considered absolutely inaccessible, but it is now frequently ascended.
Even ladies, and some of them Americans, have stood upon its summit.

But few persons, except those who have actually made the ascent of
high and precipitous Mountains, have any idea of the dangers and
difficulties of the undertaking. The adventurers are obliged to wear
shoes studded with strong iron spikes to prevent slipping; they carry
long poles with iron points by which they assist themselves up the
steep inclines; they are provided with ladders, and very often the
whole party fasten themselves together with a long rope, so that if
one slips the others may prevent him from falling.

Where there are steep and lofty precipices, crumbling rocks, and
overhanging cliffs, such as those which obstruct the path of the party
whose toilsome journey is illustrated in the accompanying engraving,
the feat of climbing a Mountain is hazardous and difficult enough; but
when heights are reached where the rocks are covered with ice, where
deep clefts are concealed by a treacherous covering of snow where
avalanches threaten the traveller at every step, and where the
mountain-side often seems as difficult to climb as a pane of glass,
the prospect seems as if it ought to appal the stoutest heart.

But some hearts are stouter than we think, and up those icy rocks,
along the edges of bewildering precipices, over, under, and around
great masses of rock, across steep glaciers where every footstep must
be made in a hole cut in the ice, brave men have climbed and crept and
gradually and painfully worked their way, until at last they stood
proudly on the summit, and gazed around at the vast expanse of
mountains, plains, val