The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-07-25

only conscious periods were wild fit
ting glimpses of wonderful ice-arab-
esques, caught momentarily as we
passed under assures that let the light
! of day through dimly. Gradually a
ghostly radiance grew to encompass us,
and by a like graduation the water
waxed intensely cold. Hope then was
| blazing in our hearts, but this new
| deathliness went nigh to quench it al
together. Yet, had we guessed the
reason, we could have foregone the des-
pair; for, in truth, We were approach
ing that shallow terrace of the glacier
beyond the fall through which the
light could force some weak passage
and the air make itself felt blowing up
on the beds of ice.
| Well, we survived, and still we sur
vive. My faith, what a coupled Sub
Unity would have none of us. The
glacier rejected souls as commonplace
as not to be properly impressed by its
inexorability. This, then, was the
end. We swept into a huge cavern
of ice-through it, beyond it, into the
green valley and the world that we
love. And there, where the torrent
splits up into a score of insignificant
streams. we grounded and crawled to
dry land, and sat down and laughed
Yes, we could do tive could laugh
Is that not basos? But Fidele and
1 have a theory that laughter is the
chief earnest of Immortality.
| To dry land, l have said. Mon Dieul
the torrent was no wetter 1t rains
in the Chamounix Valley. We looked
to see whence we had fallen, and not
even the chapeau was visible through
! the mist.
But, as I turned, Ffdele uttered a lit
tie cry. 1.-THE flask and the sandwich
box, and your poor coat!' Com
ment!' | said, and in a moment was
in my shirt-sleeves. I stared and I
wondered, and I clucked in my throat
Holy saints! 1 was adorned with q
breast-plate on my back The fric-
ton of descent, first welding together
these the good ministers to our appe-
tlte, had worn the metal down in the
end to a mere skin or badge, the heat
generated from which had scorched
and frizzled the cloth beneath it. I
needed not to seek further explanation
of the pain I had suffered-was suffer-
ing then, indeed, as 1 had reason to
know, when ecstasy permitted a re-
turn of sensation. My back bears the
scars at this moment
1t shall remain there forever" I
cried, like the badge of a cocher de
hacre, who has made the fastest Jour
ney on record! 'Coachman! from the
glacier to the valley Mais oui, mon
sleur; down this crevasse, if you
please"
And that is the history of our ad-
venture
why were we not dashed to pieces?
But that, as 1 accept it, is easy of
elucldatlon. Imagine a vast crescent
moon, with downward nick from the
enc OF the tail This form the assure
took, in one enormous sweep and drop
towards the mouth of the valley Now.
as we rushed headlong the gentle curve
received us from space to substance
quite gradually, until we were whirling
forward wholly on the latter, my lug
gage suffering the brunt of the fric-
ton. The upward sweep of the cres-
cent diminished our progress-more and
yet more-until We switched over the
lower point and shot quietly down the
incline beyond. And all this in ample
room, and without meeting with a
single unfriendly obstacle. VOLTA. mes
cheers mais, ce qui me met en- peine.
Fidele laughs, the rogue. 'Ta, ia,
tai" she says. But they will not be-
lieve a word of it all"-Macmillan's
Magazine.