“I wish I could get up there,” said Lucy.
“I wish I could too,” said Rollo. “I should like to climb up one of those trees which hangs over, and then I could look down.”
“O, Rollo,” said Lucy, “you would not dare to climb up one of those trees.”
“Yes, I should dare to,” said Rollo.
Rollo was sometimes a proud, boasting boy, pretending that he could do great things, and talking very largely. This was one of his greatest faults; and whenever he seemed to be in this boasting mood, he almost always got into some difficulty after it. There is a text in the Bible that was proved true, very often, in Rollo’s case. It is this—“Pride cometh before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Rollo had a sad Tall this day, though it was not from that high rock. It was a different sort of a fall from that, as we shall presently see.
“Lucy,” said he again, “I do not believe but that I could get up upon that rock myself. I can climb rocks.”
“O no, you could not,” said Lucy.
“Why, yes, I see a way.”
“Which way?”
“O, round by that great black log There is a path there through the bushes.”