ection
there; a drooping bough saved her from falling when the soft earth slid
from beneath her feet farther on. So she climbed along the side of the
precipice, until the broken corner of the cliff was hardly two yards off
before her. Yes, a secure foothold was there, and above it rose
irregular pointed stairs, leading steeply to the top of the cascade. O,
to reach that shattered ledge! A space of perpendicular wall intervened.
No shrub, no drooping bough, was there. Here was only a slight
projection, just enough to rest the edge of a foot upon. She placed her
foot upon it. She found a crevice above, and thrust her fingers into it
as if there was no such thing as pain. She clung, she took a step--she
was half a yard nearer the angle. But what next could she do? She was
hanging in the air above the basin, into which the slightest slip would
precipitate her. To change hands--relieve the one advanced and insert
the fingers of the other in its place,--was a perilous undertaking. But
she did it. Then she reached forward again with hand and foot, found
another spot to cling to, and took another step. She was thankful for
the great light that lighted the rocks before her. Close by now was the
fractured angle of the cliff: one more step, and she could set her foot
upon the nethermost stair. Her strength was almost gone; her hands,
though insensible to pain, were conscious of slipping. To fall would be
to lose all she had gained, and all the strength she had exhausted in
the effort. Her feet now--or rather one of them--had a tolerably secure
hold on the rib of the ledge. She made one last effort with her hands,
and, just as she was falling, gave a spring. She knew that all was
staked upon that one dizzy instant of time. But for that knowledge she
could never have accomplished what she did. She fell forwards towards
the angle, caught a point of the rock with her hands, and clung there
until she had safely placed her feet.

This done, it was absolutely necessary to stop a moment to rest. She
looked downwards and behind her, to see what she had done. The sight
made her dizzy--it seemed such a miracle that she could ever have scaled
that wall!

Nearer and louder roared the conflagration, and she had little time to
delay. Her labor was not ended, neither was the danger past. She cast a
hurried glance upwards over the ridge she was to climb, and advanced
cautiously, step by step. Her soul kept saying within her, "I will not
fall; I