eek, but brave heart--one chance yet remained to
save him from certain death--one chance alone! A black and rugged rock,
around which the waters madly leaped and broke, parted the current some
feet from the direction in which his little vessel was impelled;--if he
could reach it, he would be saved! As he approached it he stood
up;--could he make such a fearful leap?--he sat down again, and tried to
calculate calmly the distance and his powers. He drew near the
rock--still nearer--one moment more, and his only chance of life would
be gone forever! He sprang upon the edge of the boat, and, leaping from
it with all the strength of despair, fell, clinging with a death-grasp,
to the projections of the wet and slippery stone, while the boat,
whirling round and round by the impulse, dashed onwards and disappeared!

For some time Tom dared not raise his head; he felt too bewildered, too
terrified by the danger he had escaped, to comprehend perfectly his
present situation. At length he sat up, and endeavored to collect his
thoughts, and determine what next he should do. The river-bank rose
almost perpendicularly full twenty feet; no straggling vine, by whose
help he might have clambered up, fell from it, and the foaming torrent
rushing between it and him, rendered any attempt to scale it, without
some aid from above, utterly impossible. He must, then, call for help;
but who was there to hear him in this wild place--.and how could he make
himself heard above the din of the raging waters which surrounded him?
He was nigh despairing again, when he remembered the whistle with which
he used to call the pigs, and which he always carried about him; he took
it from his pocket, and blew a long, shrill cry--it rose high above all
the roar and tumult of the cataract, and his failing hope and courage
revived.

"Dick," said Jem Watson to his elder brother, as they were shooting
squirrels that afternoon in the woods, about three miles from home, "did
you hear that whistle just now?"

"A whistle! No; whereabouts?"

"It seemed to come from the Fall; but who should be there! father's at
home, isn't he?"

"Yes, father's at home. But, hark! I hear it now! Who can it be?--let's
go see!"

The young man ran off, followed by Jem, and they were soon on the cliff
above poor Tom, who sat wearily looking upwards. "Tom Lee!" they both
cried in a breath, as his pale face met their eyes.

"Why, Tom! how came you there?" called Jem.

"Don't stand ba