CHILD IN TROUBLE. 
85 
in her hands. “ You see it is growing dark; if 
you should let go, it will be so much trouble to 
get him again, and take so much time.” 
The poor little girl quite appreciated the im- 
portance of the command, and clung desperately 
with one small hand to her mother, and still 
more desperately to the halter with the other. 
Mrs. Maxwell’s attention was fully occupied with 
her new charge, which by no means proposed to 
reform under the change. Presently there was a 
scream. The child lay on her back in a rut 
between the bank and a stone, clinging to the 
halter of the pack-horse, which was looking down 
into her face. 
That animal had concluded to stop a few min- 
utes, and, not having communicated the fact to 
the horse Mabel was on, the distance between 
the horses became greater than the length of the 
halter, and the child, with Casabiancan determina- 
tion, had to take the consequences ! 
To add to the comfort of this situation, one of 
those energetic thunder-storms, with which they 
had made such familiar acquaintance during their 
camping experience, gave notice that it was about 
to commence operations. They were just at the 
summit of Carl’s Hill, above the now famous 
Magnolia mining-camp. However populous that 
mountain side may be at present, there was then 
not a human being living near it. The road, for 
