For the forest creeps all under the steeps, and
With boughs So thick that your path you pick,
But right above you, the crags, Lord love you!
And your eyes you wink at the bright blue
If a man should pop in that trap at the top, he'd
Till neck and crop to the bottom he'd drop--
'Come back, you cuss! come back to us! and
I screamed out loud, while the men in a crowd
But up they went, and my shots were spent, and
One minute more, and we gave a roar, for the
A leap for a deer, not a man, to clear,--and the
But the critter was smart and mad with fear,
Close after him came the devil's limb, with his
But when he came to the gulch's brim, I reckon
For breath at the brink! but--a white man
I knew Phil Blood too well to think he'd turn
He takes one run, leaps up in the sun, and bounds
And he clears the hole, but--God help his soul!
One scrambling fall, one shriek, one call, from
Black in the blue, where the sky looks thro', he
The edge he touches, then sinks, and clutches
I turn away--what's that they say?--he's hang-
... On the very brink of the fatal chink a
And to that he clung, and in silence swung
And as soon as a man could run I ran the way I
And I came mad-eyed to the chasm's side, and--
With lolling tongue, he clutched and swung--
I saw him glare, and dangle in air,--for the
Helped by a _pair of hands_ up there!--the InJin's?
Now, boys, look here! for many a year I've
And many a sight both day and night I've seen
Over the whole wide world I've been, and I
But the biggest sight I've ever seen was the
I held my breath--so nigh to death Phil Blood
And it seemed to us all that down he'd fall, with
But the Injin at length put out his strength--
Then safe and sound to the solid ground he
Saved? True for you, by an Injin too!--and the
There, all alone, on the brink of stone, I see
Phil Blood gone white, with the struggle and
And the Injin meanwhile, with a half skeer'd
What did Phil do? Well I watched the two,
Bend over the brink and take a blink right down
Spat slowly down, and watch'd with a frown, as
Hands in his pockets, eyes downcast, silent,
While the Panther, grinning as he passed, still
Phil Blood strolled slow to his mates below,
With his lips set tight, and his face all white,
I reckon they stared when the two appeared!