tly for the brink of that
horrible steep, where the bull, the cat and the wolf had vanished. Here,
on the dizzy verge, bear-like, he wheeled about, that his tail might
take the lead in the descent, which he evidently meditated. The boy
glanced fearfully over his shoulder. The top of the tallest trees which
grew at the foot of the hill were hundreds of feet beneath him, and so
directly beneath him, it seemed to him that were he to fall from the
bear's back he would drop like a stone into their branches.

In one long, smooth, unbroken slide, down they swept, from summit to
base of that tremendous steep. Well it was for Sprigg that the little
arms which held him on were so firm and strong, else must he inevitably
have slipped from the bear's back and found his way to the world below
by his own natural gravity, instead of by somebody else's super-natural
power.

The descent accomplished, the bear changed ends, that his nose might
take the lead. With a slightly waving motion, as were he swimming in the
air, now was he gliding swiftly onward at a speed which soon brought him
and his riders to the edge of a wide swamp, where the forest foliage
became so thick as wholly to exclude the moonlight. Here he paused, and
in a loud voice called out:

"Will-o'-the-Wisp! Will-o'-the-Wisp!" A voice so tremendously loud that
it must have been heard through all the wilds around; yet never an echo
it left to tell it had sounded.

Had an echo awakened, it could hardly have fallen asleep again before
the boy espied approaching them swiftly through the gloom a large ball
of light, which shown with a phosphorescent gleam, so dead and dim, that
the luminous circle it made in the pitch-black darkness of the swamp
seemed scarcely to exceed its own circumference. Without any preliminary
abatement of motion, the glimmering ball, as were it a lantern borne by
an unseen hand, came suddenly to a pause in the air directly before
them. Then followed an odd sort of a dialogue, made up of questions on
one side, with motions for answers on the other, the wisp-light moving
up and down for "yes," from side to side for "no," and for "I don't
know," 'round and 'round.

Bear. "Will-o'-the-Wisp, have you lighted the robber's feet to the
pit-fall?"

Wisp. Up and down.

B. "Did he swear?"

W. From side to side.

B. "Did he pray?"

W. Up and down.

B. "Will he be less of a thief for the pit-fall?"

W. 'Round and 'round.

B. "Has Friar's lantern li