knew that he was. Nothing could save
him--nothing, and in imagination he saw himself lose his hold of the
branch, slip sidewise, and go down headlong as the bears had fallen, to
strike against the rocks, glance off, and then plunge down, down,
swifter and swifter into space.

The sensation was fearful, and for the time being he could make no
effort to master it. One overwhelming sense of terror had seized upon
him, and this regularly froze all action till he now crouched as
helpless and unnerved as the poor fellow before him who never even
turned his head, but clung to the branch as if insensible to everything
but the horrors of his position.

Joses shouted to him, and said something again and again, but Bart only
heard an indistinct murmur as he stared straight down at the tops of the
pines and other trees half a mile below him; and then came a dreamy,
wondering feeling, as to how much pain he should feel when he fell; how
long he would be going down all that distance; whether he should have to
fall on the tops of the pine-trees, or amongst the rough ravines of
rock.

And so on, thought after thought of this kind, till all at once, as if
out of a dream, a voice seemed to say to him:

"Well, I shouldn't have thought, Master Bart, as I'd taught all these
years, was such a coward!"

The words stung him, and seemed to bring him back to himself.

Coward! what would Maude think of him for being such a coward? Not that
it would much matter if he fell down there and were smashed to death.
What would the Doctor, who had given him so many lessons on presence of
mind, coolness in danger, and the like? And here was he completely
given up to the horror of his position, making no effort when it was
perhaps no harder to get back than it had been to get forward.

"I won't think of the depth," said Bart, setting his teeth, and, raising
himself upright, he hitched himself a few inches back.

Then the feeling of danger came upon him once more, and was mastering
him again rapidly, when the great rough voice of old Joses rang out
loudly in a half-mocking, half-angry tone:

"And I thought him such a brave un too."

"And so I will be," muttered Bart, as he made a fresh effort to recover
from his feeling of panic; and as he did so, he hitched himself along
the branch towards the main trunk with his back half turned, threw one
leg over so that he was in a sitting position, and the next minute he
was standing beside Joses, with