ments of light
that remained we employed in covering our hut with a species of
broad-bladed grass that grew in every fissure of the ravine. Our hut, if
it deserved to be called one, consisted of six or eight of the straightest
branches we could find laid obliquely against the steep wall of rock, with
their lowered ends within a foot of the stream. Into the space thus
covered over we managed to crawl, and dispose our wearied bodies as best
we could.

Shall I ever forget that horrid night! As for poor Toby, I could scarcely
get a word out of him. It would have been some consolation to have heard
his voice, but he lay shivering the live-long night like a man afflicted
with the palsy, with his knees drawn up to his head, while his back was
supported against the dripping side of the rock. During this wretched
night there seemed nothing wanting to complete the perfect misery of our
condition. The rain descended in such torrents that our poor shelter
proved a mere mockery. In vain did I try to elude the incessant streams
that poured upon me; by protecting one part I only exposed another, and
the water was continually finding some new opening through which to drench
us.

I have had many a ducking in the course of my life, and in general cared
little about it: but the accumulated horrors of that night, the death-like
coldness of the place, the appalling darkness and the dismal sense of our
forlorn condition, almost unmanned me.

It will not be doubted that the next morning we were early risers, and as
soon as I could catch the faintest glimpse of anything like daylight I
shook my companion by the arm, and told him it was sunrise. Poor Toby
lifted up his head, and after a moment's pause said, in a husky voice,
"Then, shipmate, my toplights have gone out, for it appears darker now
with my eyes open than it did when they were shut."

"Nonsense!" exclaimed I; "you are not awake yet."

"Awake!" roared Toby, in a rage; "awake! You mean to insinuate I've been
asleep, do you? It is an insult to a man to suppose he could sleep in such
a place as this."

By the time I had apologized to my friend for having misconstrued his
silence, it had become somewhat more light, and we crawled out of our
lair. The rain had ceased, but everything around us was dripping with
moisture. We stripped off our saturated garments, and wrung them as dry as
we could. We contrived to make the blood circulate in our benumbed limbs
by rubbing them vigorously