The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-05-14
vanced to the edge of the height, al

the foot of which he was informed she
lay, coiled up and holding on as well
as she could to the projecting lodges Of
rock, which were her only support,
and from which the wild waves every
moment, as they doomed EDWARDS,
threatened to dislodge her.
She had as usual, made her way
down an almost perpendicular path,
never frequented but by herself and
the mountain goats, whom she rival
led in hardihood and nimbleness of
foot. Harvest of marine vegetables
had been more abundant than usual,
and she had unwisely ventured on a
deceitful shelf of stones and green,
Shiny sea-weeds, from which, her foot,
slipping, she had been precipitated
many feet downwards to the sands.
There she lay moaning and helpless,
though not seriously injured.
But the high tide coming in, and
with it q sudden change from mild to
bolsterous rough weather, she would
have been soon carried out to sea,
had she not succeeded in dragging
herself beyond it's reach, and in fasten-
ing herself to some jutting rocks, to
which she chung and attached her hold
like a sea anemone; but this refuge
could not have been hers long, and
she would soon have been swept from
it and lost, but for q neighbor whom
she had left with the child, who during
her absence watched for customers.
Both the neighbor and the child
wondered at Winny's unusually long
absence, and the man becoming
seriously alarmed when the weather
grew stormy, on venturing short
distance down the path to discover, if
possible, had anything gone wrong,
though unable to proceed much more
than half way down the steep, all but
lmpassa bledescent, yetwent far enough
to catch glimpse OF what had occur
red. TO get the almost helpless
woman up by thepathway, then beset
with the additional dangers caused by
a fierce strong wind, was not to be
thought of; but summoning without
moments delay the hardy peasants
OF the place, and by means of a. trum-
pet shouting directions to Winny
from the nearest hearing-point, they
succeeded in lowering to her a creel
and two long wattles, with which
they desired her to balance herself
from dangerous contact with the pro-
lectlng rocks, and as O'Kennedy yet
listened to his informant, the exclama-
tons OF the crowd warned him that
the perilous ascent had commenced.
His head grew dizzy, as he tried to
look down from a jutting point of
land little to one side of the exciting
spot towards which all eyes and hearts
turned in dread. He grew sick as he
caught an occasional glimpse OF some
thing swaying and swinging between
earth, or rather sea- and heaven, en-
Veloped every moment with showers
OF thick spray thrown up by furious
raging waters, and occasionally lost
to sight from the outings and pro-
Jections OF the green, slimecovered
rocks.
The wind had risen fearfully, even
within a few moments, and fortunate
it was that it had not done so before
the men, holding the coil OF rope at
tached to the creel, had trumpeted
their orders to the hapless voyager.
Three men, who had formed them
selves into a, sort OF human chain, had
themselves to- be held and supported
by others, lest their strength or cour-
age should give way, and lest they
might be drawn over the precipice. At
last, the basket and its occupant
seemed to near the top of the height,
and already the impulsive Irish peas
ants commenced their loud hurrahs of
Joy and triumph. O'Kennedy could
now see her distinctly, as she knelt in
the creel, holding in either hand the
poles OF her destiny, and guiding her
trail conveyance.
"A few moments more, and she is
saved" cried the foremost of the men
who hauled the rope; but the words
were scarce uttered, when q strand of
the treacherous rope gave suddenly
way.
Yielding at the pressure from below,
and the hearty pulls from above, and
heated and wasted by the sharp COLI
sion with the shelving rock at top,
which had acted as sort of windlass
to the rope, and a partial defense
against the precipice to the basket,
the cord began to untwist in his hand.
Ere the cry Of horror had time to is
sue from the lips of the crowd another
strand had loosened, and quickly be-
gan to unravel itself from the rest of
the cordage. The life it sustained
now almost literally hung upon a
thread. In terror and agony almost
equal to poor Winny's own, they
ceased for second to attempt draw
ing her up, lest the thread should snap
on which her life depended. There she
was. suspended some twenty feet from
the landing-place; swayed hither and
thither by the wind, and each instant
expecting to be dashed to pieces, ere
she could even reach a. grave in the
waters beneath. She felt thread after
thread giving with her-down, down,
she felt impelled by her own weight.
But terrible as was the situation, the
intrepid crags-woman's presence of
mind did not desert her.
She knew that for the remaining
cords to bear her in safety to the TOP
would be impossible, but her courage
rose with the, occasion; and as the un-
twlnng rapidly proceeded, she took
her resolution.
Fixing firmly first one, then the
other OF her two crutches on a jutting
ledge of rock, on which there was