himself for the emergencies that lay ahead of him.

Every day, and every hour of each day, the two boys found much that
excited their wonder, for now they were studying nature at first-hand.
Taking their dog, they one day climbed the mountain beyond the one on
which their watch-tower stood, and came down into a lovely valley. But
what instantly arrested their attention was the face of the mountain on
the far side of this valley.

Instead of being a timbered slope, this mountain was a sheer precipice of
rock that rose abruptly a thousand feet in air. Its rugged sides were
seamed and scarred. Here and there a projecting ledge offered a scant
foothold, but mostly the face of the cliff was one vast, frowning rock
that rose almost perpendicularly. On tiny ledges and in crevices of the
rock little ferns grew in masses, hanging down the face of the cliff like
green fringes. Wild flowers had taken possession of the crannies. In
precarious footholds, where it seemed impossible for them to exist, a few
trees had sprung up, their roots crawling fantastically over the rocks in
search of bits of earth to grow in, while the tops of the trees stood up
slantingly against the face of the cliff. Mostly they were evergreens, and
their scraggly branches made irregular dark masses on the face of the
precipice.

As the two boys made their way toward the foot of this cliff, a great bird
came soaring over the top of it, and sailed in lofty circles over the
valley.

"Look at that hawk!" cried Lew. "Isn't he a whopper? Look at the spread of
his wings. And see how he soars, without ever moving a muscle. I wonder if
he can see us."