THE ORANGE RIVER. 
29 
me to turn the corner at the top, so Lulu put his shoe 
under the rope, close to the edge, so as to make room 
for my fingers. The rope being very thin, and my 
hands big, it was a hard struggle for me to get up. As 
I reached over the edge Lulu grabbed me by the collar, 
at the same time pulling his shoe out from under the 
rope, and down went my knuckles against the stone, 
grinding the bark off them, and squeezing some hard 
words out of me, which I won’t repeat here, for fear my 
readers might not understand them. 
“ What did you pull the shoe out for, Lulu ? ” I 
asked, when at last I gained the top. 
“ Because I could not get my foot out from under 
the rope unless I did,” he replied. 
He had forgotten to take his foot out of the shoe 
when he first put it under the rope, and had borne the 
pain caused by the small cord cutting into it, with my 
weight on it, until I was safely round the bend. 
We were pleased to find our German companion had 
several rock-pigeons ready grilled. Never was food 
more welcome ; it was now nearly sundown, and our 
last meal w^is at daylight this morning; the long fast- 
ing, combined with the constant and sometimes violent 
exercise, had created in us ravenous appetites, and the 
rapidity with which we made the half-dozen good-sized 
sweet morsels disappear would have done credit to 
Hermann, or any other professor of legerdemain. 
That night we slept on our bed of planks without 
rocking, and never woke until breakfast was announced 
by Fritz, who shouted, — 
“ Genklemen, dat coffee vill cold come if you don’t 
stand up, so quicker as quick. Die sun is stand up 
already. Vere you climbs to-day, dat’s vere I bin. I 
don’t vait some more, I’ll vatch it.” 
Old Sol, with his warm, life-giving rays, came steadily 
and slowly into view, as we completed our toilet. This 
took us half a minute longer than usual, as we had to 
put on our shoes ! Usually all we had to do was to 
throw off the blanket and put on our hats. To wrap 
oneself up in a blanket, and sleep with one’s clothes on, 
