72 DIFFICULT DESCENT. 
Alarmed for the safety of her nest, the hawk 
was not long in giving him an opportunity to 
quiet all apprehension of danger from her beak 
and talons, thus leaving Mrs. Maxwell free to 
realize her lofty aspirations without other concern 
than to preserve her own bones unbroken. 
The ascent was in every way successful. It is 
true, the limbs of the tree were not all arranged 
to the best advantage for the accommodation of 
aspiring bodies ; but then, she remembered hav- 
ing heard that upward progress is always at- 
tended with difficulties that seem insurmountable. 
Contrary to approved ideas, the descent was not 
without them either, in this case. 
Where it had been an almost impossible feat 
to draw one’s body up to a branch just within 
one’s reach over-head, in coming down, it was 
not pleasant to hang suspended by one’s hands. 
Suppose one’s feet should miss the limb by no 
means exactly below them. If, as the Irishman 
asserted, “the fall didn’t hurt any,” the stopping 
most assuredly would ! By great exertion and 
skill, she managed to avoid trying the experi- 
ment, however, and with nothing more serious 
than a few narrow escapes and some scratches, 
succeeded in slipping safely into Mr. Maxwell’s 
arms again, with one downy hawklet and an un- 
hatched egg in her bosom ! 
Upon reaching their destination — a ranch on 
