cording to the plan he and Lucy had formed together. The arch hung from tree to tree, in a beautiful spot, as, without exaggeration, Lucy had described it; and across from bank to bank stretched the bridge, supported by its six wires from the arch above. The mother went over the mother's bridge the day it was finished, without once catching flounce or petticoat in the wires, Indeed, after having crossed it, complaisantly, twice for the honour of the architects, she actually crossed and recrossed it a third time, purely for her own satisfaction. As to the number of times which Lucy crossed and recrossed the mother's bridge this day, it must not be named, for it would pass all human, or all grown-up powers of belief.

The historian has been minute, perhaps, even to tediousness, in the detail of the construction of this suspension bridge, in the hope that it may prove a pleasure to some future young workmen. For their encouragement it should be noted, that this is not a theoretic, but a practical bridge. Nothing is here set down but what has been really accomplished by a boy under twelve years of age. It has been said, as an incentive to enterprise, that whatever man has done, man may do again. And it is equally true, that whatever boy has done, boy may do.

278

SLIDE OF ALPNACH.

ONE day, Harry and Lucy were with their mother, at her comfortable seat, she working, Lucy reading to her, and Harry making a kite; he looked up to see which way the wind was, and he saw Sir Rupert Digby coming down the mountain towards them. Away went books and work, the kite and his tail were cleared off the ground, and Harry and Lucy ran to meet their friend. He had a long pole in his hand, pointed with iron, which he used as a walking-stick. This Harry and Lucy instantly supposed must be one of those used by the peasants on Mount Pilate, of whom they well remembered the account which their mother had formerly read to them. The long disputed question between them as to the manner in which these poles were held by the people, who used them in descending steep mountains, was now settled beyond a doubt, by Sir Rupert's evidence, and by his showing them the method. Lucy found, that it was exactly the way which Harry had understood from the description, and had shown to her. Lucy walked, or

attempted to walk, all the rest of the way, down the steepest part of the path, with Sir Rupert's pole; but, far from its being of use, she slipped ten times more than usual, from want of understanding the practice as well as the theory of wielding it. After they were fairly on flat ground, and had passed Harry's bridge, paying due and never-failing toll of admiration, Lucy began to ask Sir Rupert questions about Mount Pilate, whether he had ever ascended it when he was in Switzerland, and whether he had seen or heard any thing of the twelve children, who once lived there in a hut, which they had built for themselves, with a dog to guard them. Sir Rupert had ascended Mount Pilate, but of the twelve children, their hut, and their dog, he could give no information. Indeed, had the individuals for whom Lucy was inquiring been living and forthcoming, they must, by this time, have been about eighty or ninety years of age. To make amends, if possible, for his ignorance about these children, he gave Lucy a description of a storm, which came on one day when he was in a boat on the Lake of Lucerne, so suddenly, and with such violence, that it was all the experienced boatmen could do, to get into a little bay in time to escape the danger of being upset. The lightning was more brilliant and frequent than he had ever seen in England, and the thunder reverberating

any

from the mountains more deep-toned and sublime. But the circumstance which remained in his mind, as most characteristic and picturesque, was the sudden gathering of an immense body of black cloud, which covered the blue sky almost instantaneously, and, descending from the summit of Mount Pilate to its base on the edge of the lake, hid the whole of that mountain as completely as if it had not been in existence. In less than ten minutes, this black, dense mass of clouds, which had advanced upon the blue waves, opened towards the middle, and, like a curtain drawn back in vast folds, passed away on each side, revealing the base of the mountain; the divided mass then quickly rolled upwards, like enormous volumes of smoke, and vanishing fromthe summit left it clear. In a few moments, no trace of cloud was to be seen, the sky was blue, the sun shining brightly, and the whole expanse of the lake placid and unruffled as if no storm had ever been.

To interest Harry still more about Mount Pilate, Sir Rupert promised to send him an account of an extraordinary mechanical work, which existed there a few years ago, called the Slide of Alpnach.

"Could not you give me some idea of it now, sir?" said Harry; "I dare say we should understand it as well, or better, from your description, than from the book."

"I will endeavour to explain it," said Sir Ru

pert," as you wish it; but in the book, to which I allude, there is a more clear and exact description than I can hope to give. It is written by one who saw the work," continued he, turning to Harry's father, "by our great, our amiable, our ever-to-be-regretted friend, Professor Playfair.

"First, Harry, I should tell you the purpose for which it was made. On the south side of Mount Pilate there were great forests of spruce fir; and, at the time of which I am speaking, a great deal of that timber was necessary for ship-building. These forests were, however, in a situation which seemed almost inaccessible, such was the steepness and ruggedness of that side of the mountain. It had rarely been visited but by the hunters of the chamois or wild goat, and they gave information of the great size of these trees and of the extent of the forests. There these trees had stood for ages useless, and there they might have stood use. less to this day, but for the enterprise and skill of a German engineer, of the name of Rupp. His spirit of inquiry being roused by the accounts of the chamois hunters, he made his way up by their paths, surveyed the forests, and formed the bold project of purchasing and cutting down the trees, and constructing, with some of the bodies of the trees themselves, a singular kind of wooden road, or trough, down which others fit for ship-building could be sent headlong into the lake below, which