"Please don't be long on each head," pleaded Lewis, throwing himself
back in his bed, while his friend placed the point of each finger of his
right hand on a corresponding point of the left, and crossed his legs.

"I won't. I shall be brief--brief as your life is likely to be if you
don't attend to me. The three dangers are, as I have said, unavoidable;
but two of them may be guarded against; the other cannot. First, there
is danger from _falling rocks_. This danger may be styled positive. It
hangs over the head like the sword of Damocles. There is no avoiding it
except by not climbing at all, for boulders and ice-blocks are perched
here, and there, and everywhere, and no one can tell the moment when
they shall fall. Secondly, there is danger from crevasses--the danger
of tumbling into one when crossing a bridge of snow, and the danger of
breaking through a crust of snow which conceals one. This may be called
a negative danger. It is reduced to almost nothing if you are tied to
your comrade by a rope, and if the leader sounds with his staff as he
walks along; but it changes from a negative to a positive danger to the
man who is so mad as to go out _alone_. Thirdly, there is danger from
new snow on steep slopes, which is positive if you step on it when
recently fallen, and when the slope is very steep; but is negative when
you allow sufficient time for it to harden. While, however, it is
certain that many deaths occur from these three dangers being neglected,
it is equally true that the largest number of accidents which occur in
the Alps arise chiefly from momentary indiscretions, from false steps,
the result of carelessness or self-confidence, and from men attempting
to do what is beyond their powers. Men who are too old for such
fatigue, and men who, though young, are not sufficiently strong, usually
come to grief. I close my lecture with a quotation from the writings of
a celebrated mountaineer--`In all cases the man rather than the mountain
is at fault.'"

"There is truth in what you say," observed Lewis, rising, with a yawn.

"Nay, but," returned his friend, seriously, "your mother, who is made
very anxious by your reckless expeditions, begged me to impress these
truths on you. Will you promise me, like a good fellow, to consider
them?"

"I promise," said Lewis, becoming serious in his turn, and taking his
friend's hand; "but you must not expect sudden perfection to be
exemplified in me.--Come, let'