CHAPTER THE LAST. 429 



being able to bold him ; for bad he slipped wbile in our 

 hands, be would have pulled us over too." 



" But/' said I, " to me it is unintelligible how it is 

 possible to get along a ledge so narrow, when you have 

 a wall close beside you. Your own shoulder or hip, 

 knocking against it, must make you lose your balance. 

 It is all very well when the face of the rock inclines 

 away from you ; but when straight up, — that is what I 

 do not understand." And I tried to move alongside the 

 wall of the room with my body close against it. 



" In that way of course you cannot," said he, watch- 

 ing me. " For it is an old joke to place a person with 

 one foot close against a wall, parallel with it, and to 

 tell him to lift up the other. He is unable to do it of 

 course ; he loses his balance at once ; but move your 

 foot a little, with your toes to the wall, and heel over- 

 hanging the ledge," he continued, and trying the ex- 

 periment himself, while he spoke, — " no, that is not 

 quite enough yet, — a little more, — ah ! yes, that will 

 do now. You see now I can lift up the other foot." 

 And turning with his face to the wall, he moved a 

 step in advance. "And then, as I said before, the 

 wall is seldom quite straight, and one can hold on a 

 little here and there. But it was not merely ourselves 

 — there was the tree — we had to go back and drag the 

 tree along the ledge." 



iC I only wonder that you found any one to accom- 

 pany you. I am surprised that, when the others saw 

 you were determined to venture, they did not let you 

 make the attempt alone." 



" No, no," he replied, " they would not do that ; first 

 they think that they climb better than any one else; 

 and that, where a gentleman goes, they can also. Beside 

 this, I must say, all those fellows in the mountains never 



