was nearly seven; his young mind was full of eager questions; he
wanted to know the reason of everything, and it was really because he
was so curious and prying that Aunt Christy thought him worse than the
rest.

[Illustration: "Jim got a terrible drenching."]

On that morning he poked about the kitchen, opening baskets and peering
into dishes, until his eyes fell upon a large bright pail, which was set
upon a stand too high for him to reach.

'That's a new pail. Why's Aunt Christy got a new pail? Wonder what's in
it? I will see.'

So said Jim to himself; and when he found that, even by standing on
tiptoe, he could not reach, the little rascal trotted off for his
three-legged stool, mounted on that, put his chubby arms as far as they
would stretch round the pail. A three-legged stool, however, is but a
treacherous support, and this Jim found to his cost. As he stood there,
it slipped from under his bare feet, and the pail, which was full of
warm water and vegetables, suddenly overturned.

Poor Jim got a terrible drenching; it was lucky for him that the water
was not very hot, or he would have been sadly scalded. As it was, a big
turnip hit him on the head, and the handle of the pail hurt him. Wet and
bruised he crept away, a sadder and a wiser boy, inwardly resolved to
have nothing more to do with things which did not concern him.

C. J. BLAKE.

[Illustration: A Cliff-dwelling of North America.]

WONDERFUL CAVERNS.

VII.--THE CLIFF-DWELLERS OF NORTH AMERICA.

If you take a map of North America, and trace the line of the Rocky
Mountains downwards, you come to the State of Colorado, with New Mexico
and Arizona lying below; and if you tried to explore this country you
would find yourself in a perfect network of mountains. In Colorado there
are magnificent snow-peaks, with richly wooded valleys lying between
them, whilst in New Mexico and Arizona the land is much more bare,
mountain ridges, often covered with stones and pebbles, dividing flat
table-lands of great extent.

Common to all three States are wonderful gorges, or splits in the
cliffs, of immense depth. Sometimes from below one can hardly see the
sky between the precipices; at other times the gorge may open out into
quite a broad valley; but, whether narrow or wide, we may be quite sure
that wherever there is a canyon (as these rock-splits are called in
Western America) there will be a river running down it.

One of these rivers, named the C