plants of the
tropics. Three hours' upward travel brought them into the regions of the
temperate zone, and they plucked wild strawberries such as grew in New
England. Pressing on up the steep side, scaling cliffs and rocks, which
at times almost defied their skill and strength, the air grew cooler.
The vegetation was less rank. The grass grew short and in places there
was none at all.

"Are you tired?" John asked.

"Not much."

"Let us sit and rest."

"The sun has almost reached the meridian, and we are not half-way up the
mountain."

"Yet you must have a few moments' rest, Blanche."

They rested but a moment and again pressed on. They had now reached a
great altitude, and the valley below looked like a fairy-land. They
found up here a species of mountain goats which they had not seen
before. They were very shy of the intruders and went bounding away from
cliff to cliff and rock to rock at a speed which defied pursuit.

John shot one. The report of his musket in this lofty region was so
slight as to be heard but a short distance, but the birds, soaring
aloft, screamed with fear and went still higher up the mountain sides.

Here they found squirrels more abundant than in the valley. The oaks and
hickory trees bore an abundance of nuts for them. Further on the
nut-bearing trees gave place to grass, and they found themselves on a
sloping plain.

Every hour seemed bringing them to new and unexplored regions. Old
Snow-Top, as they called the mountain, contained wonders. The trees had
dwindled to dwarfs, and the animals degenerated in proportion. Some
fur-bearing animals were found in these lofty regions, and the eyrie of
the eagle was in the cold, dark cliffs.

There was a perceptible change in the climate. The clothing suitable for
the valley was uncomfortably light in this region.

"Blanche, are you cold?" he asked.

She, smiling, answered:

"Never mind me, I can stand it."

"The air is chill."

"It always is so in ascending a lofty mountain."

"The ascent is more difficult than I supposed; behold the cliff before
us!"

"I see it."

"It seems almost perpendicular."

"So it does."

"I see no way to scale it from here."

"Yet, like all other ills in this world, the difficulties may disappear
at our approach."

When they advanced toward the cliff, fully two hundred feet in height, a
narrow rocky slope was seen ascending on the left, like a flight of
winding stairs, to the plateau above. Even wi