ot afterwards
remember, but all in a moment Liesl, who could perch herself, as it
seemed, on nothing at all, pretty, sure-footed Liesl was over the edge!
Little Kirl threw himself down on his face in an agony, and peered over
the edge, calling and screaming wildly in his despair, for there was no
hope of saving poor Liesl. But yes, there was! Down there she had got
her fore-foot on a ledge below the brink, and was fighting and
scrambling to regain her foothold. The loose stones were slipping away
under the pretty tufts of "student roses" that grew amongst the shale,
and poor Liesl was slipping away too, down and down.

She was staring up at him with imploring eyes, with a look that seemed
to call aloud for help. But little Kirl had got her. It was not for
nothing that little Kirl's eyes were so steady when they looked in your
face and his face was so square about the chin, however much he smiled.
Those stout little arms were clinging to neck and leg as if the owner of
them would be dragged over the ledge himself before he would leave poor
Liesl to her fate. Let her go? No! _That_ was not the way little Kirl
kept his charge; _that_ was not the way of men on the mountains.

But Liesl was not light, and Kirl was only little, and his breath came
and went, and his eyes saw nothing, and the world was whirling round,
and a great sob burst from him. And then a big, big voice said: "Thou
little thing! Thou little, good thing!" And two big, big arms came
downwards and caught little Kirl and Liesl up together into--oh, such
blissful safety! And little Kirl stood clinging to somebody; and what
happened next he did not know. Careless, ungrateful Liesl only shook
herself and frisked off, with a little squeal of relief, to join the
older and wiser goats.

But little Kirl, when he next knew what he was doing, found that he was
crying and sobbing uncontrollably, and big Kirl, the tallest, handsomest
man in the village, was patting his shoulders, and soothing and
consoling and praising him. And yet more--big Kirl, one of the best
guides in the canton, whose fame had gone far abroad, by whom it was an
honour to be noticed at all, said, and little Kirl heard it with his own
ears: "Na, if I had not seen it, I would not have believed it! But yes,
I saw it, and I saw also in days to come the little man will make such a
guide of mountains as Switzerland may be proud of!"

CHAPTER SEVEN.

A NEW SET.

An old Crocodile