EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN PUBLICATIONS. 
39 
capable of bearing his weight. The rope was made fast by the other brothers, 
and wound round the body of the young adventurer. The latter then descended, 
avoiding all the perils of sharp points and jutting crags, until he made good his 
landing on the rock where the nest was placed. He took possession of his prize, 
which contained four eaglets, and then gave the signal of ascent. The brothers 
above instantly obeyed it, and the young, man was gradually drawn up, finding, 
however, no slight difficulty in guarding his head from the rocks and preserving 
his well-earned prize. When only half of the ascent was attained, a fearful, 
though not wholly unlooked-for, incident occurred. The parent Eagles returned 
for their young, and attacked in the fiercest manner the plunderer of the nest; 
other Eagles joined in the assault, and the young man had much difficulty in 
saving himself from their fury. He flourished the sword above his head, and 
struck several blows at the most audacious of the Eagles. While thus occupied, 
he felt the rope in a slight degree relaxed, and, glancing his eye upwards to 
ascertain the cause, saw, to his horror, that he had allowed the edge of the sword 
to grate against the rope, and that the rope was cut through at least one half. 
His alarm on this discovery may well be conceived—every moment he expected 
that the rest of the cord would break with the weight of his body, and he made 
up his mind to die a dreadful death. In the mean time the brothers on the top 
of the rock continued to haul up the rope, until they were enabled to stretch out 
their hands and safely grasp the young man. They rescued him from almost 
certain death; but, a few minutes had produced the effects of age on his consti¬ 
tution ; his hair was changed to grey, and it was a long time before his mind 
recovered the shock .—French paper. 
2. A Parrot Anecdote. —The chief mate told us, writes Capt. Bennett, that 
on board a ship in which he had served, the mate on duty ordered some of the 
youths to reef a main-top-sail. When he got up, he heard a strange voice 
saying, “ It blows hard!” The lad flew down in a trice, told his adventure, and 
a second was sent up, who as speedily came down, declaring that an unearthly 
voice had whispered in his ear, “ It blows hard !” Another went, and another, 
but came back with the same tale; at length the mate went, and heard the same 
words, “ It blows hard! ”—“ Ay, ay,” says he, “ old un, but, blow it ever so hard, 
we must ease the earrings for all thatand, looking round, he espied a fine 
Parrot perched on one of the clues, which had probably escaped from some other 
vessel, and had not been discovered till he had created an alarm in this. 
3. Geese and their Representatives. —A French priest, who had usually 
a very small audience, was one day preaching at the church in his village, when, 
the doors being open, several Geese (with their gander) came stalking up the 
middle aisle. The preacher, availing himself of the circumstance, observed that 
he would no longer find fault with his district for non-attendance; because, 
