will not fall;" but she dared not look backwards again, lest
even then she should grow giddy and miss her hold.

As she ascended, the ridge inclined nearer and nearer to the side of the
cascade, until she found the stones slimy and dripping. This was an
unforeseen peril. Still she resolutely advanced, taking the utmost
precaution at each step against slipping. At length she was at the top
of the waterfall. She could look up into the upper gorge, and see the
water come rushing down. There was space beside the brook for her to
continue her flight; and the sides of the gorge above were far less
steep and rugged than below. She was thrilled with hope. She had but one
steep, high stair to surmount. She was getting her knee upon it, when a
crashing sound in the underbrush arrested her attention. The crashing
was followed by a commotion in the water, and she saw a huge black
object plunge into the stream, and come sweeping down towards her.

On it came, straight at the rock on which she clung, and from which a
motion, a touch, might suffice to hurl her back into the lower gorge.
She saw what it was; and for a moment she was frozen with terror. She
was directly in its path: it would not stop for her. The sight of the
blazing woods below, however, brought it to a sudden halt. And there,
close by the brink of the waterfall, facing her, not a yard distant, in
the full glare of the fire, it rose slowly on its hind feet to look--a
monster of the forest, an immense black bear.

And now, but for the nightmare of horror that was upon her, Virginia
might have perceived that the forest _above_ the cascade was likewise
wrapped in flames. The bear had been driven by the terror of them down
the stream; and here, between the two fires, on the verge of the
waterfall, the slight young girl and the great shaggy wild beast had
met. She would have shrieked, but she had no voice. The bear also was
silent; with his huge hairy bulk reared up before her, his paws pendant,
and his jaws half open in a sort of stupid amazement, he stood and
gazed, uttering never a growl.

XXIX.

_IN THE BURNING WOODS._

The incessant excitement and fatigue of the past few days had caused
Penn to fall asleep almost immediately after Carl left him. The rude
ground on which he stretched himself proved a blissful couch of repose.
Virginia climbed the mountain to meet him, and no fine intuitive sense
of her approach thrilled him with wakeful expectancy. Carl wa