but the mias continued busily
employed in plucking fruit and handing it to the young one; as I
supposed, teaching him how to open it, and take the best parts. My
heart beat as if it would break, so anxious did I become. Oh, how
thankful I felt when Grace at length reached me with the shell of water.

"I could not help spilling some of it," she said, as she put it to
Oliver's lips. "I am sure it will do him good. See! see! he is already
opening his eyes."

He did so, but closed them again. We poured a few drops down his
throat, and then bathed his forehead and head; and in the meantime
Ursula was approaching. She could never move conveniently very fast,
and she was now evidently out of breath from running. This made her
perhaps more inclined to cry out, to let us know that she was coming.
Supposing the mias had not seen her, I dreaded lest her voice should
attract its attention. That it had done so there was soon no doubt, for
I saw him leaning over the bough, and looking eagerly about. Not till
then did I tell Grace what I had seen.

"Oh dear! what shall we do?" she exclaimed. "It will seize poor Ursula,
I am sure. See! see! it is already swinging itself down from the bough!
Yes--there--it has almost reached the ground! Shall we let Ursula know
of her danger, though I am afraid she will faint if she catches sight of
the creature, she has such a dread of them?"

"No; say nothing: she is too far on to run back again, and it will be
better for her to get on the rock, and she may reach it before the mias
can do so."

"But if she does not, I must fire!" exclaimed Grace, seizing Oliver's
gun. "I am not afraid of doing that."

"But you cannot take good aim," I said. "It will be better not till the
last extremity."

"No; I will only do so if the mias gets near Ursula," she answered,
taking up the gun, however, and advancing steadily along the rock.

I had never seen her exhibit so much coolness and courage; indeed, I did
not think that she possessed them. Ursula had stopped at that moment
for want of breath, and the mias also seemed to be sitting on a lower
branch which he had reached, gazing towards us, as if considering
whether the person he saw was coming to attack him. Happily all this
time Ursula was not aware of her danger. Having recovered herself a
little, she again began to hurry on towards the rock. Hoping that, as
the mias stopped when she stopped, it might do so again, I now shouted
out t