Page 118 - A Little Bush Maid

For some time the noise of the falls had deepened, until now it was a loud
roar; but the sound had hardly prepared the boys for the sight that met their

gaze. High up were rocky cliffs, sparsely clothed with vegetation, and
through these the creek had cut its way, falling in one sheer mass, fifty feet

or more, into the bed below, hollowed out by it during countless ages. The
water curved over the top of the fall in one exquisite wave, smooth as
polished marble, but half-way down a point of rock jutted suddenly out,

and on this the waters dashed and split, flying off from it in a cloud of
spray. At the foot the cataract roared and bubbled and seethed in one

boiling mass of rapids.

But the glory of it all was the sunlight. Tt fell right on the mass of

descending water; and in the rays the fall glittered and flashed with all the
colours of the rainbow, and the flying spray was like powdered jewels. Tt

caught the drops hanging on the ferns that fringed the water, and turned
them into twinkling diamonds. The whole fall seemed to be alive in the
sunbeams’ dancing light.

"Oh-h, T say," whispered Harry. "Fancy never showing us this before!" He

cast himself on the ground and lay, chin in hands, gazing at the wonder
before him.

"We kept it to the last," said Norah softly. She sat down by him and the
others followed their example.

"Just think," said Harry, "that old creek’s been doing that ever since time
began--every day the sun comes to take his share at lighting it up, long

before we were born, and ages after we shall die! Doesn’t it make you feel
small!"

Norah nodded understandingly. "T saw it once by moonlight," she said.
"Dad and T rode here one night--full moon. Oh, it was lovely! Not like this,

of course, because there wasn’t any colour--but a beautiful white, clean
light, and the fall was like a sheet of silver."