“At last she came to a small flat place, like a table, and then she turned round to rest, get breath, and take a look at the glorious view; and jist as she hove-to, up went her little heels, and away went her stick, right over a big parpendicular cliff, hundreds and hundreds, and thousands of feet deep. So deep, you couldn’t see the bottom for the shadows, for the very snow looked black down there. There is no way in, it is so steep, but over the cliff; and no way out, but one, and that leads to t’other world. I can’t describe it to you, though. I have see’d it since myself. There are some things too big to lift; some, too big to carry after they be lifted; and some too grand for the tongue to describe too. There’s a notch where dictionary can’t go no farther, as well as every other created thing, that’s a fact. P’rhaps if I was to say it looked like the mould that that ‘are very peak was cast in, afore it was cold and stiff, and sot up on eend, I should come as near the mark as any thing I know on.
“Well away she slid, feet and hands out, all flat on her face, right away, arter her pike staff. Most people would have ginn it up as gone goose, and others been so frightened as not to do any thing at all; or at most only jist to think of a prayer, for there was no time to say one.
“But not so Lot’s ‘wife. She was of a conquerin’ natur’. She never gave nothin’ up, till she couldn’t hold on no longer. She was one o’ them critters that go to bed mistress, and rise master; and just as she got to the edge of the precipice, her head hangin’ over, and her eyes lookin’ down, and she all but ready to shoot out and launch away into bottomless space, the ten commandments brought her right short up. Oh, she sais, the sudden joy of that sudden stop swelled her heart so big, she thought it would have bust like a byler; and, as it was, the great endurin’ long breath she drew, arter such an alfired escape, almost killed her at the ebb, it hurt her so.”
“But,” said Mr. Hopewell, “how did the ten commandments save her? Do you mean that figuratively, or literally. Was it her reliance on providence, arising from a conscious observance of the decalogue all her life, or was it a book containing them, that caught against some thing, and stopt her descent. It is very interesting. Many a person, Sam, has been saved when at the brink of destruction, by laying fast hold on the bible. Who can doubt, that the commandments had a Divine origin? Short, simple and yet comprehensive; the first four point to our duty to our Maker, the last six, towards our social duties. In this respect there is a great similarity of structure, to that excellent prayer given us—”
“Oh, Minister,” said Mr. Slick, “I beg your pardon, I do, indeed, I don’t mean that at all; and I do declare and vow now, I wasn’t a playin’ possum with you, nother. I won’t do it no more, I won’t, indeed.”
“Well, what did you mean then?”
“Why I meant her ten fingers, to be sure. When a woman clapper claws her husband, we have a cant tarm with us boys of Slickville, savin’ she gave him her ten commandments.”
“And a very improper expression too, Sir,” said Mr. Hopewell; “a very irreverent, indecent, and I may say profane expression; I am quite shocked. But as you say you didn’t mean it, are sorry for it, and will not repeat it again, I accept your apology, and rely on your promise. Go on, Sir.”
“Well, as I was a savin’, the moment she found herself a coasting of it that way, flounder fashion, she hung on by her ten com—I mean her ten fingers, and her ten toes, like grim death to a dead nigger, and it brought her up jist in time. But how to get back was the question? To let go the hold of any one hand was sartain death, and there was nobody to help her, and yet to hold on long that way, she couldn’t, no how she could fix it.
“So what does she do, (for nothin’ equals a woman for contrivances), but move one finger at a time, and then one toe at a time, till she gets a new hold, and then crawls backward, like a span-worm, an inch at a hitch. Well, she works her passage this way, wrong eend foremost, by backin’ of her paddles for the matter of half an hour or so, till she gets to where it was roughish, and somethin’ like standin’ ground, when who should come by but a tall handsome man, with a sort of a half coat, half cloak-like coverin’ on, fastened round the waist with a belt, and havin’ a hood up, to ambush the head.