arm, and then, with a loud crash, drop down upon the
shell close under his elbow, chipping a large piece out of it.

His first impression was that some one had thrown a stone at him. It
had hit him on the arm, just creasing it; but on looking at the place
where he had been hit, he saw that the sleeve of his jacket was split,
or rather torn, from shoulder to elbow, as if a sharp-tooth curry-comb
had been drawn violently along it. He felt pain, moreover, and saw
blood upon his shirt underneath!

He looked quickly around to ascertain who had thus rudely assailed him--
anxiously, too, for he was in some dread of seeing a savage spring from
the bushes close by. On turning, he at once beheld the missile that had
rent his jacket-sleeve lying on the sand beside him. It was no stone,
but a round or slightly oval-shaped ball, as big as a ten-pound shot, of
a deep-green colour, and covered all over with spurs like the skin of a
hedgehog!

He at once saw that it had not been thrown at him by any person; for,
with the sharp, prickly protuberances thickly set all over it, no one
could have laid hand upon it. Clearly it had fallen from the tree
overhead. Helen had perceived this sooner than he; for sitting a little
way off, she had seen the huge ball drop in a perpendicular direction--
though it had descended with the velocity of lightning.

Beyond doubt, it was some fruit or nut, from the tree under which they
were seated. From the way in which the jacket-sleeve had suffered, as
well as the skin underneath--to say nothing of the piece chipped out of
the shell--it was evident, that had the ponderous pericarp fallen upon
Henry's skull, it would have crushed it as a bullet would the shell of
an egg.

Young as the two were, they were not so simple as to stay in that spot
an instant longer. On the tree that could send down such a dangerous
missile there might be many more--equally ready to rain upon them--and
with this apprehension both sprang simultaneously to their feet, and
rushed out into the open ground, not stopping till they believed
themselves quite clear of the overshadowing branches that so ill
protected them. They looked back at the seats they had so abruptly
vacated, and the green globe lying beside them, and then up to the tree;
where they could see other similar large globes, only at such a vast
height looking no bigger than peaches or apricots.

They did not dare to venture back to their seats, nor, although